Luka to the lakers and other holy bleep moments!

I fully intended my first blog post to be related to the SB but man, did things escalate in the last couple of days in the NBA!

It’s been a few days since the news broke that Luka Doncic was traded to the Lakers. As more and more info comes out regarding that trade, it still makes zero sense. Luka, Maxi Kleber, and Markieff Morris to the Lakers. What did the Lakers have to give up to acquire a not yet in his prime Luka Doncic? Surely the Dallas Mavericks received a ton of picks right? I mean, hell, Mikal Bridges of all people was traded for 5 firsts.

Nope! The Mavs received Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a singular first round pick that does not convey until 2029. That’s it. That’s all that they got back for a top three player in the league by most people’s view point. No disrespect to AD because he is a top 15 player in the league himself but, the Mavs should have got at least 2 more firsts out of this in my opinion.

It’s even stranger than that. The word going around is that it was the Mavs GM, Nico Harrison, that opened up the conversation with the Lakers in the first place. Why? Because apparently Harrison had concerns about Luka’s conditioning and his defense. Now, having concerns about his conditioning is valid. Doncic has never been in the best of shape. But the man still got it done. This is a man that, after his rookie of the year campaign, has been an All-Star and an NBA first teamer all 5 years.

Is durability a concern? Doncic has never played more than 72 games in a regular season. That was his rookie season. Out of a possible 542 games in the regular season, Luka has played in 422. That’s roughly 78%. Now look at AD in the time since Luka has been in the league. Out of a possible 539 games in the regular season, Davis has played in 366 or 68%.

If you’re thinking that it doesn’t seem fair to compare an older Anthony Davis to a younger Luka Doncic in games played; well let’s look at the first seven years of AD’s career. AD played in 466 games out of a possible 574, which is just over 81%. Yes, AD was a lot more durable in his early years. Until last year when Davis played in 76 games, he had not played in more than 60 games in four out of five seasons. And that one season where he played more than 60, he played 62.

His final year with the Pelicans, at age 25 and his 7th year in the NBA, Anthony Davis played in 56 games. He missed 26 games that year. Luka’s final year with the Mavs, at age 25 and his 7th year in the NBA, he has 22 games out of a possible 50. He has now missed 28 games. Now, I’m not suggesting that Luka will follow the same trajectory. Just an interesting observation.

And even if he did follow the same trajectory, you still have to get multiple first round picks for a player like that right? I don’t think AD was ever considered a top three player in the league.

The Dallas Mavericks starting line-up projects to be; Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, PJ Washington, Anthony Davis and Daniel Gafford. Is that a starting five that can make a championship run in the playoffs? It’s possible. But, the championship window with Luka was the next 6 years at least. With AD? Maybe 3 if they are lucky.

Fox to the spurs, lavine to the kings,the bulls got what?

The dust of the Doncic/AD trade had not even settled yet. Although, to be fair, there was an awful lot of dust. When another trade happened. De’Aaron Fox got his wish to get traded to the Spurs. LaVine probably got his wish to get out of Chicago. I say probably because, even if there was discourse between LaVine and the Bulls FO, you never heard about it. And the Bulls got…nothing of substance really.

It’s a big win for the Spurs. They get a guy that can help them immediately as well as someone that can grow with Wemby. And they didn’t have to give up anything of significance. They still have all of their young players. Castle, Keldon Johnson, Vassell, Sochan; all still there.

It’s whatever for the Kings. We’ve seen how the DeRozan/LaVine pairing did in Chicago. Although, when they have a true facilitator, like they did with Lonzo Ball, there is potential for a run. Remember, these two, along with Lonzo and Vuc were the best team in the Eastern Conference at one point until all of that came crashing down. Domantas Sabonis is a really good facilitator. At the end of January, he had a stretch of three games where he averaged 11 assists per game. His assists are down this year but he averaged 8.2 assists last year.

The Bulls were the salary partners in this. To get Fox to the Spurs, a big contract was needed to facilitate that trade. LaVine is a downgrade from Fox but, he is a good player. Just not worth the max that he got. LaVine is averaging 24 points per game on career highs of 51% shooting and almost 45% from the three point line.

The Spurs got Fox and the Kings got LaVine. The Spurs were able to keep all of their young guys. You would think that the Bulls got multiple picks in return for helping to facilitate De’Aaron getting to the Spurs right? Nope. They got one first round pick. Just one. And it was their own damn pick to begin with. The pick they sent to San Antonio to get…Demar DeRozan. Which, because that pick had a top 8 protection, would not have conveyed if the Bulls would have started a rebuild at the last trade deadline like everyone said that they should. Mikal Bridges got 5 first round picks. Zach LaVine got 1…kind of.

There is a logjam in the 7-10 range to decide which teams get to the play-in game. Five teams; Minnesota, Dallas, Sacramento, Phoenix and Golden State are fighting for the four play-in spots. And the Spurs are only 3 games out. Can the Spurs make a run? What happens in the next couple days with the rumors swirling around Golden State and Phoenix on possible trades? It will be interesting to see what happens.