I'm not up with NBA stuff much anymore but wtf would the Mavs do that? I guess Doncic must've asked to be traded but AD will age badly.

Supposedly Doncic did not request a trade. Mavs had concerns about Luka's conditioning and how that would play out with an inevitable supermax. Mavs approached Lakers and dangled Doncic.

Incredible.

Mavs GM figures AD's defense puts them in better stead.

Can the NBA block this move? It's so boring to just see another unqiue star ending up at the Lakers. There has to be more to it? Maybe Luka has some baggage?

Doncic's attitude has been pretty bad this season, especially with regard to the refs, and I can’t see the coaches or his teammates liking it.

Yeah, but surely you try and exhaust a solution to that before just trading the face of your franchise for a much older, non-equivaent player, even more prone to injury...

Don't get me wrong, AD is the best two-way big in the league.

It is terrible how the Lakers get all these superstars. Doncic as I understand it is the comfortably the best player in the NBA and all they really gave up was AD who's best years are behind him. It's pretty sickening but that's the NBA, they want Doncic in a big market.

The best thing the Lakers could do is get rid of LeBron/Bronny, no way Doncic will tolerate a way past his prime LeBron still trying to be the man on the team. I bet LeBron retires at the end of the season his last hope was to play with Bronny that's done now need to hand the team over to Doncic soon or he might ask to be traded elsewhere.

There was a suggestion that the Mavs wanted to trade Gafford before he had a solid run recently. Surely that happens now? Don't they play Washington up a position too?

Luka might be poorly conditioned and whine, but he's clearly a prodigy. Slovenia punched above their weight. Mavs overperformed last season.

I know they're in win-now mode so picks will be less useful to them, but surely shopping him around more could've brought something more?

Just came to say this is the ref's fault. Seriously though how the mavs didn't think a handful of good players and like 10 1st round picks with little protection wasn't a better option I don't understand. Like that's the whole Mavs future and emergency blow it up for a rebuild piece traded for a win now center... with no future assets. Organisations rot from the top in every sport and every league

James and Doncic don't exactly compliment each other either.

Dallas are going to cop an absolute hammering for this.

It also brings into question (for me) as to if Jason Kidd is still the best coach for this team without Doncic there now.

New Orleans were forced to trade AD to the Lakers in the first place too.

Lakers aren't miles from contention, at least going by standings. Though arguably this kills that. Are they maybe trading LeBron this week, and setting up to contend in 2-3 years?

e.g., LeBron to Warriors for Kuminga/etc and any picks they can get. Curry/LeBron get a final run, and then the pick is priceless when Curry/LeBron/Draymond retire shortly after? If they got Wiggins too, that starts to put them in a reasonable place sans centre.

Also got to remember what Luka likely means to the fans. Dallas love to embrace these unique European players. The biggest backlash could be from that direction.

It might work out nicely for LA, but Dallas is the team who has to justify why they traded Doncic, not why LA traded for him. LA would be rapt. They know they have likely gotten everything out of the Davis/Lebron duo, and now have another unique star to fall into their lap. It has basically cost them nothing in a way.

Many calling this the biggest trade in NBA history, fair?

LeBron and Doncic on the same team, I don't see it.

Lots of "worst trade" and major surprise. Which makes it intriguing, IMO.

This is insane, thought it was joke when I just saw it on the news.
Has to be the biggest out of the blue trade ever.
Lakers will miss AD a fair bit though.

Also just read that it means Luka misses out on a super max, that's a big kick!

Is Donic a pending FA?

The win now argument makes no sense obviously because Doncic is their best player. If they needed to upgrade their defence, then surely you can find someone through a trade for that without trading Doncic? Got to remember what the alernative might be without Doncic. His individual brilliance is why they are a contender, regardless of flaws. Wouldn't be surprised if there is more to this, so when the facts change, I will change my mind too, but for now this does not make much sense for Dallas. Like Isaac says, you don't rush a trade for this type of player.

LeBron James learned of the Davis-Doncic trade after the Knicks game when it broke while he was out to dinner with his family, sources close to James told ESPN. James was surprised by the news, is processing it and had no idea it was in the works, sources said.

Guess the Mavs also got sick of his incessant whining.

lol See ya LeBron

By all accounts no one saw this trade coming, insane

Wonder if LeBron can get to Cleveland to upgrade an already competitive roster further, and do his farewell tour back home?

They don't need LeBron, he'll just destabilise them.

Just had a wild thought Pelinka should trade LeBron to Miami for Butler. Force him to go back to Riley lol Jimmy Buckets can then pout and carry on wearing his Phoenix Suns shoes as second fiddle to Doncic.

LeBron was not even consulted?

Can't see how he'd want to run out this season without AD and with Luka injured. And while I can see him with Warriors or similar, I reckon that would make for a weird farewell tour. At Cleveland, he'd be on a major contender and get a reasonable farewell tour.

Miami then. Ha.

Obviously Dante's return had the Mavs feeling Luka was expendable.

That or the Lakers wanted to grab the headlines away from the Clippers big Patty trade!

The issue for me is whether that is in the best interest of Cleveland though? If Lebron was prepared to just assimilate into what's already working in whatever way they thought was best, then it could be an amazing narrative to his career, but it could also destabilise them. Depending on what they'd give up, I probably would resist the temptation.

One argument for Cleveland doing it is that the contenders might be pretty even this year - them, Boston, OKC, etc. If they can trade some benchies for LeBron to get them above that bracket, maybe it's hard to resist? Have a couple of years with a really strong starting unit.

Looking at their salaries, there are some guys in the broader rotation getting paid tradable money.

And after he retires, you still have the four key starters, etc.

"And after he retires, you still have the four key starters, etc."

Plus the biggest piece of any LeBron deal, Bronny.

The fact LeBron made the Lakers draft his son was one of the worst things I've seen from an NBA team. The guy was a scrub in college, he's a SEABL import level player.

He's worse than SEABL
Imports. Imports don’t get players being that ordinary in college

Isaac, I just assumed that trading for LeBron would likley cost the Cavs a starter or two. Defintely for the right price you'd have to consider it.

But I would still be concerned about the capacity to destabilise what they're doing, and you make a good point about what they're up against.

If they did decide to trade for him, I would want assurances that this isn't all about Lebron and his narrative/legacy or any of that stuff. It's not about LeBron returning to lead Cleveland from an internal perspective, although that will obviously be a natural sub plot of the media.