Luka Doncic Trade Breakdown

Trysta breaks down easily the most shocking trade in NBA history. Luka Doncic is a Laker, and the reasons for it don't make any sense.

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
On this episode of the Heat Check, We've got the
most shocking, surprising NBA trade in history, maybe all of sports.
I'm sure you heard this, but I am here to
break it all down. Dallas Mavericks have traded Luca to
the Los Angeles Lakers. Fuck. I hate the Lakers for

(00:30):
Anthony Davis for day to day Davis, one injury prone
guy for an older, injury prone guy one can play
defense though. Oh yeah, by the way, the Kings. The
Kings traded dearon Fox in a three teen to seven
player deal. We'll get into that as well. My god,

(00:50):
don't Dottle Anthony, I know you've been up late drinking wine,
recording podcasts. Drop that beat that should be Rihanna. I

(01:11):
don't know what to say. I don't know. Oh my god,
oh holy shit, Holy fuck. Early Sunday morning or late
Saturday night, depending on what coach you're on. Something happened.
The Trains changed the entire landscape of the NBA. Not
a goddamn soul saw it coming, not even the souls involved.

(01:35):
The Dallas Mavericks moved one of what was regarded as
maybe the number one untouchable player in all of the
NBA and Luka Doncic, a player that, just in October
was the leader in the clubhouse for MVP to the
Los Angeles Lakers, for Anthony Davis in the middle of

(01:58):
the night. No rumors, no whispers, nothing. I'm not sure
as a Blazer fan if I will ever get used
to Luka Doncic a Laker. My phone went nuclear. I
was fast asleep, trying to get a little rest. I
hauled myself out of bed to get to all this,

(02:20):
and I am still in shock. Rewind this and let
me just say it again for the people in the back.
People thought that Twitter was hacked, that Scham's somehow had
broken his account, that China had taken over the NBA
Twitter sphere. Luka Doncic is an a Los Angeles Laker.

(02:46):
How sway? Why sway? Lord have mercy? How did the
trade go down in this way? How is it so cheap?
That's the point of this episode to try to make
sense of what happened, because if you're like everyone else,
and I mean everyone else, you probably didn't believe it
when you first saw it. When you first heard it,

(03:07):
and when Shams broke the news, the universal reaction was Nope,
that's not correct, that's not real. There's just it's just
a twelve year old in his basement in Beijing hacking
into Shalms's account and being like, I know what it'll
be fun today, Luca for Anthony Davis, just a random

(03:28):
I don't even think the ESPN trade generator would let
that trade through in fake news, in like the alternate
reality of the Internet. That's how little sense it all made.
Shams tweeted multiple times, Hey, this is one thousand percent real,
he said, one thousand percent reel. I am not kidding.

(03:49):
He had to put that. When was the last time
you saw a newsbreaker being like, hey, guys, it's me still,
I'm not joking. This is real. And while you're still
processing this, let's get into the details before we try
to figure out what actually happened. The details are almost
inconsequential when compared to the ramifications. The Dallas Mavericks traded

(04:13):
Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleba, Marky Morris to the Lakers for
Anthony Davis, Max Christy, and an unprotected twenty twenty nine
first round pick. Of course, Danny Ainge got involved because
that's what he does. He trades. Okay, he trades, taking
on a bad contract hood Schaffito and getting a parent

(04:35):
Jalen Hoods Fido. Remember that was probably a tough one
for Rob Polinka at Asualla, but we'll give him some
credit right now because he pulled off a fleecing. So
the Jalen Hoods Shaffido picks somehow meaningless. Now, uh, they
got a pair of second round picks in twenty twenty
five for what just I don't get it. Anyway, with that,

(04:58):
everything changed, not just in Dallas and in LA but
everywhere in the league. We've got Kevin Durant being like, well,
I guess I can be traded at any moment. Now,
if Luka Doncic can be traded, anyone can be traded.
As Devin Booker just said, no one is safe. Well
maybe Wemby is safe, but really Booker was so shocked

(05:22):
when he was told Luca got traded he immediately asked Garza,
Luca Garza, I mean not certainly, not the dawn. Anyway,
we'll start here. The one thing that everyone agrees on,
because you look at the reporting and it's let's just
say not consistent. The one thing that everyone agrees on

(05:42):
is that it all begins with one man, Dallas Mavericks
GM Nico Harrison, former VP of Basketball Operations for Nike.
The story is emerging by the moment, but here's what
we believe right now. The idea of trading Luca formed
in Nico's head as early as Thanksgiving, but around a

(06:06):
month ago, Nico reached out directly to Laker's GM Rob Polinka,
and they had coffee, That's what Nico said. They had
coffee and it was just it was just a chill
GM GM coffee And it was like, according to Nico,
would you ever maybe think about I don't know, haven't
ever thought about it? Would you ever think about it?

(06:28):
It was like two friends being like, have you ever
thought about fucking? You know? It's like I don't know, maybe,
And then it's like I think we should fuck. You know,
we fucked. Now it's done. No one else knows, but
we are now in a post Coito relationship. Anyway. The

(06:49):
only one that he said that too, though, by the way,
is Rob Polinka former And I don't think actually it's
being quite underline how insider trading ish. This is. No
one's saying this, and actually just came to my mind.

(07:10):
Nico Harrison when he was at Nike was a big
Kobe guy. That was his dude. They were thickest thieves,
peas and carrots. That was his marquee player. He was
responsible for shepherding, putting out the signature line and doing
everything under the sun that Kobe could want. Pause. Kobe's

(07:32):
agent was also thickest thieves with Kobe, and that was
Rob Polinka. So it probably would make sense that nic
o'harrison and Rob Polinka have maintained a quite tight relationship,
a buddy buddy brotherhood connected by rest in peace. Kobe

(07:52):
Bryant on the right around the fifth year anniversary of
his death, Reports are that Polinka was like, what, you're
interested in trading Luca? His first words were are you kidding?
But after forty eight hours of thought, after they finally
had detailed a real trade, he came back and was like,

(08:15):
let's do this in secret, baby, don't tell nobody. They
started negotiating without anyone else involved, no players, no agents, nothing,
for three weeks. Despite contrary reports, Nico said himself that
there were no other teams contacted about Luca. It was
all under the darkness of night and by secret. Luca

(08:38):
had no idea that this was coming. He is, by
all accounts, stunned, baffled, now going to lose probably fifty
million dollars as a result. We will get into one
hundred and sixteen million reasons why. And early reports were
none of the players knew what was coming, not Anthony Davis,
not even the man who we say has the strings

(09:01):
of the puppet, Lebron, James Chris Haynes is reporting there
was one other person who knew about the impending trade.
Nico apparently called Rich Paul of Clutch, Lebron's agent, Anthony
Davis's agent, and told him what could be coming. But
I don't know about that. And even though Lebron says
that he didn't catch wind of the trade, if Rich

(09:22):
Paul had news of the trade, do you think he
wouldn't have said anything to Lebron. I don't know more
on this later. So the facts are as we know
him there as that. Let's get into why. Well, part
of it has to do with what Tim McMahon, longtime
Dallas Mavericks beat reporter, tweeted out that around the beginning

(09:48):
of the year before they shut Luca down, Luca was
playing at close to two hundred and seventy pounds, paging
Zion Williamson, paiging Zion Willimson like epic levels of out
of shape eating croissauts and bagels and ben Yet's and

(10:08):
anything else that Luca wants to put in his mouth,
and not doing a ton of running in order to
get those calories off, which would make Luca, by the way,
the seventh heaviest player in the NBA, which would also
make Luca a defensive lineman for the Washington Commanders. Reports
are trickling in that the team was frustrated with Luca,

(10:29):
and not just as conditioning, but with the team that
came along with Luca and his conditioning. They were getting
a little antsy about paying Luca three hundred and sixty
four million dollars who just does not come to seasons
prepared physically, does not seem to care about his body
consistently has we'll call it nicks and bruises with the

(10:52):
same ailments calf strains, squad strains, ankle sprains, and that
they thought he would be more prone to in the
future because of it. They were basically out. They were
wanted out of the Luka Doncic business. And he's not
even close to his contract expiring. It he was just
eligible for an extension. He has multiple years left on

(11:14):
his deal. This team firmly did not believe that they
could win a championship with Luka Doncic at the center,
and they believe they could win a championship with Anthony
Davis at the center. Mind you, Anthony Davis isn't exactly
some picture of health either, not because they didn't think

(11:35):
he was good enough, but because they didn't think he
was healthy or fit enough. They thought he was loving
donuts and beer. Remember when Michael Finley, after they made
the finals, the Dallas Mavericks made the finals, took away
Luca's beer. That's how you knew they were all kinds
of fucking upset with him. Anyway, short of it is

(12:00):
that Luke Nico didn't believe Luca playing himself into shape
was even a possibility. And we all thought that the
Pelicans were the one and only team with concerns about
player condition, so much to process. How do you trade
a guy with no other suitors involved. Let's make it.
Let's move it down by breaking a team by team.

(12:21):
Let's start with the Mavericks. This team, by the way,
went to the finals last year and two series. Luca
was carrying these boys Kyrieata's moments. PJ Washington hit a
couple of corner threes, Derek Lively blocked a couple of
very clutched shots, had some putbacks, Daniel Gafford out a
game or two, They had a Klay Thompson, and they said,

(12:44):
we don't think we can win with you. They just
went to the finals. The MAVs had won fifteen of
seventeen games before Luca went down with his injury on
Christmas Day, and he hasn't played since. I don't even
I don't even know. I don't know that this is
real life. The MAVs then add Anthony day to Day Davis,

(13:07):
who's been very healthy the past one and a half years,
but like I said, has had a history of injuries.
Besides that is now thirty two years old, which is
seven years older than Luka. Doncic Nico's main statement since
the trade, I believe defense wins championships. I believe getting
an all defensive center and an All NBA player with

(13:28):
a defensive mindset gives us a better chance. We're built
to win now and in the future. Man I don't
know how he can say that with a real straight
face and for us to believe him, Jason Kidds said,
toning the company line, would you look at the vision
of the team and what Nico wants to do? I
truly support and truly believe that the players we are

(13:50):
getting are the ones who can help us achieve that.
Oh yeah, by the way, Max Christy, they wanted him
a lot. I guess the players we are getting fair.
Before I go into the lineup, Nico has made a
series of suspect moves as GM ones that we have panned, derided,

(14:13):
and truthfully they've all looked pretty fucking good. We all
will say that the moves he makes are peculiar, unorthodox,
and so far they have worked. Here's the MAVs lineup
and what it looks like right now. Kyrie at the one,
Klay Thompson at the two, PJ. Washington at the three,
Anthony Day to Day Davis at the four, and Derek

(14:34):
Lively at the five, with the bench in Spencer Dinwiddie,
Daniel Gafford and Max Christi. And they're probably not done.
They're gonna need another shot creator. That's a big ass team.
By the way a lot of guys six six and above.
Kyrie is kind of the only small guy in the
starting five. Spencer Dinwittie, I think is six to five,

(14:56):
Daniel Gafford, seven footer Max CHRISTI I believe six to
six big team, big boys. Feels like that jumbo lineup
that they had going for them which took them to
the finals last year. They wanted to lean into more,
but they also saw that Luka Doncic in the finals
was a sieve and they didn't want that no more.

(15:20):
I guess is it better than the MAVs with the
healthy Luca, I don't know. I remember how Luca was
doubled and triple teams against OKC, and how they got
guys like I don't know, PJ. Washington and Derek Jones
Junior hitting clutch threes. PJ. Washington just left wide open

(15:43):
the whole series. Is that a possibility when Anthony Davis
is there and not Luca, I don't know. I don't
think so. Anthony Davis better start hitting those threes again.
If you look at any playoff game over the past
three years, you will see what I'm talking about, and
that with the healthy Lebron taking a lot of heat
off Kyrie Irving better be a picture of health. Part

(16:06):
of this scoring load will be passed on Kyrie, who
is He's pretty good this year. He's thirty two, and
he has a bulging disk in his back. He hasn't
been particularly healthy. Klay Thompson's role will probably increase as well.
But Klay Thompson is not a shot creator. He is
a shot maker, and he's a worst defender, probably right
now than Luca and Ad is thirty two, with the

(16:29):
history of injuries. I hope this goes the way they
want it because Nico Harrison, if he makes this trade
under the darkness of night, without ownership approval, without player approval,
and this goes bad, they might kill him. They might
kill him. I swear. If you trade a player like

(16:50):
that with no else, no other people signing off, and
it does not work out like it goes really bad.
If they're still I don't know, like a play in team,
we got real problems anyway, here's the lynchpin. Nope, Nico
is preaching defense, but this team last year was third

(17:12):
in the league in defense in the second half. But
now they have a roster where they're gonna have three
guys at center. They have eighty four, which is really
where he plays his best. PJ defends the three, Clay
defends the two, and Kyrie trying to strap a bunch
of six to six guards. I don't know how that's
gonna go. I think at the end of the day,

(17:33):
if you believe in what Nico has done so far,
you say, the man knows a lot more about Luca
than we do, and he did not like what he sees.
What would success be for the MAVs right now? Well,
you're gonna have to go to the Western Conference finals again.
You're gonna have to beat Okac probably again. You're gonna
have to beat the Minnesota Temperwolves again. You better figure

(17:55):
it out. I'm concerned, but I've been wrong before when
it comes to Nico Harrison. By the way it caused
people to this trade caused people to dig up the
fact that they think that Nico Harrison was responsible for
fumbling the bag on Steph Curry when Steph Curry was
thinking about being a Nike athlete, where a botch presentation

(18:18):
happened so badly where someone called him seth and recycle
the presentation made for Kevin Durant that Curry then ditched
Nike and signed with under Armour. By the way, Steph
Curry's under Armour deal is now worth over a billion dollars.
Moving on to the Lakers, how do you do this?
I don't know. On both sides, it's pretty confusing. You

(18:42):
basically have to say in terms of the long term
post Lebron, because we don't know when he's going to retire.
You now have one of the most marketable players in
all of the NBA. You have a guy who, if
you believe he can get in shape, is top three
in the league, top five in the league. Just when
you count the Lakers. They find a way to find
one of the best bucket getters whose idol is Lebron James.

(19:06):
Luca in La a fit. Luca in La is a lifesaver.
How exactly this team is gonna shake out is unknown.
The Lakers need a center. They needed a center when
Ad was playing center, and now they don't have one anymore.
They've got Jackson Hayes and they've got Christian Wood. Not great.
They're gonna need to make a move again. The truth

(19:29):
is you're looking at a team with Luca Austin Reeves
Lebron James, Ruy Hachi Mura or Dorian Finney Smith and
Jackson Hayes. I think they've punted on the year a
little bit. Luca went to the finals with less last year.

(19:50):
He went to the Western Conference finals with less a
few years ago, and with a functioning center like a
Clint Capella or a Walker Kesler, who knows, who knows?
Stranger things have happened. And when you have not won,
but two players on your team who can win a
series by themselves, akaa Lebron James and AKAA Luca Doujits,
you'd never know. You cannot count them out. A lot

(20:12):
of this is going to depend how Luca responds to
this trade. Is this a wake up? He did not
request the trade. He did not want out of Dallas.
He loves Dallas. He never has indicated I don't want
to sign my extension. The MAVs could have signed him
to the Supermax and then could have traded him, certainly
for more than they got from the Lakers. One NBA

(20:33):
exec was asking what he would trade for Luca, and
he gave a one word answer. Everything at anything you want,
you can have first indications Luca is pissed. His dad said,
with this trade hypocrisy from the MAVs organization hurts me personally.
I think Luca absolutely did not deserve this. I know
he sacrificed a lot. He respected Dallas, he respected the

(20:57):
whole city. He helped children, and it was not a
problem for him to go to hospitals and charity events.
He played one hundred games last season for forty minutes
a game, constantly being doubled. I think it's very unfair
from certain people from Dallas. And Sunday he released a
statement Luca did to the Dallas fans in which he said,
I thought I'd spend my entire career here. I wanted

(21:17):
so badly to bring you a championship. That is sad.
That is Tyrese Halliburton sad. If he decides to say
fuck you to the MAVs and comes out in shape
with a huge chip on his shoulder, this could mean
banners in La Gross. Gross. Also, what's going on in Utah?
What is going on in Utah? They're just stacking up salary,

(21:40):
picking up picks, picking up random players. They just took PJ.
Tucker for Christ's sake. Doesn't make any sense. Utah now
owns a twenty seven Lakers first round pick top for
four protected, so it's in their interest that the Lakers
get bad very quickly. This pretty much ensures that this
is a middling pick. Very weird, very weird situation. I'm

(22:00):
trying to process it all. Here's what the Athletic wrote.
By all accounts, Doncich had no idea this was going
to happen. This is like when you're fucking up at
your job but your manager hasn't really told you, hey,
you're on thin ice, and then you do something that
really is very small aka Luca straining his calf and

(22:23):
not being available in the team tumbling down standings, and
then they just decide, you know what, we're gonna fire yours.
You're out of here, and you're like, what that feels extreme?
And it's like, no, you've been fucking up for a while.
You're a really high performing team player, but really you
do a lot of things we do not like. We
don't like you culturally for us, as a fit for us,

(22:44):
you come in late, you come in out of shape,
you're eating and meetings, what are you doing. It doesn't
really matter whether Luca would have signed with the team
that acquired him. Now there's no guarantee he's gonna resign
with the Lakers either. Who knows La pulled the trigger?
And because you pulled the trigger for Luke, don you
figure the rest out later? Other teams with younger superstars
would have pulled the trigger for Luca too. He's that good,

(23:07):
that's the athletic says. Yeah. The strange thing is that
there are probably twenty teams that would have mortgaged their
entire future for Luca. That's why I think this is
a strict Kobe Bryant inside job. Nico Harrison and Rob Polinka.
That's the only thing that makes any logical sense. This

(23:27):
is just a buddy, buddy. This is like when you've
got you've got your membership at Augusta golf course, and
like you just sell it to your friend for pennies
on the dollar just because you can. That's what just happened.
Nico didn't tell anyone, He's like, fucker, this is up
to me, so I'll hook my boy up. And Rob
Polink was on a Nike sedge. Things were getting real

(23:48):
dicey for him. Luca is a marketing monster, a superstar.
He moves the needle and weighs the very few others do.
He's global. Why wouldn't you pick up the phone and say, hey,
can we get a donnovd Mitchell? What do you think?
Can we get Darius Carlin and Donovan Mitchell? What about

(24:09):
the Hawks? Like? Could we get Dyson Daniels and Jalen
Johnson and some picks the nets? Can we have everything
you have? Can we can we have all the picks
from you? Like Michel Bridges got five first round picks?
Michel Bridges? What is like? What is Luka Doncic getting?
What if the Knicks would have traded for Luka Doncic?

(24:33):
Why didn't the Knicks trade Karl Anthony Towns for Luka Doncic?
Why did Minnesota trade Karl Anthony Towns for Luka Doncic?
Nico Harrison's legacy right now. He's turned Jalen Brunson, Christas Porzinkis,
and Luca into Anthony Davis, Max Christie, Spencer Dinwiddie and
a twenty twenty nine first round pick. He's turned Jalen Brunson,

(24:59):
Christas Pors, and Luka Doncic into basically Anthony Davis in
a first round pick Spencer didn't when he was a
buyout canidate. By the way, as for the Lakers, fuck him,
fuck them. They went from Jerry West to Kareem Abdul
with Jabbar to Magic Johnson to Shaq and Kobe to

(25:20):
Lebron to Luca with like no hiccups. I think there's
like two years where they didn't have anybody. It's ridiculous.
Nico and Polinka must be thicke as thieves somehow. This
deal doesn't surprise me. But what do I know? If
I was if David Stern was alive, I think he
blocks fucking trad He's like Chris Paul's not going to

(25:42):
the Lakers, and you're not fucking going to Lakers either, bitch.
I don't think either team's done trading either. We'll see
what happens. We need like a like a Cam Thomas
on Navs just chucking. We need a Clint Capella or
a Mitchell Robin or Rob Williams would be a great Laker.

(26:03):
Give us that twenty thirty one first round pick. There
were whispers of Lebron James the Golden State and I
was like, no way, but right now, can't call it.
Anything's possible the Lakers would be dumb not to get
a center. Now there's too many guards. Austin Reeves has
gotta go. No more trades, gotta be more. Trades have

(26:24):
got to be coming. How big. I don't know who knows,
Like maybe Honest is out. Like if Luca can go,
anyone can go. Golden State's making trades about Kevin or
making calls about Kevin Duran who knows? Right now, Ad
is out with a shocking abdominal strain and all two
hundred and seventy pounds of Luca back, probably around the
All Star break. I just bought tickets, by the way

(26:46):
to the probably the first game that Luca plays in
a Lakers uniform against the Trailblazers in Portland, February twentieth.
You can get into any other Portland Trailblazers game for
eighteen bucks, this one one hundred and eighty bucks. What
a night, What a night. Moving on, while I was
wrapping up the Lucas Show, a trade dropped at the

(27:08):
last minute. The finally sent deeron Fox as San Antonio Spurs.
Let's break the trade down first before I react. Spurs,
get dearon Fox and Jordan McLoughlin backup point guard and
a full time point guard. Kings get Zach Levine, Big
Booty City Susoco if you know, you know Thirst, three

(27:30):
first round picks, one of them will not convey because
of how bad Charlotte is, and three second round picks.
Bulls get Kevin Herder, Zach Collins, Trade Jones and a
Bulls first rounder. Yuck yuck. Does anyone do well in
this trade? Except for the Spurs getting deeron Fox for

(27:51):
almost nothing. It feels like a haul for the Kings
out on the face right until you realize that the
twenty twenty five first rounder from Charlotte is top fourteen
protected and they will not be in the top fourteen,
so it will turn into two second rounders. The twenty
twenty seven first rounder is the Spurs twenty twenty seven
first rounder, and they'll probably be a top five team

(28:12):
in the West by then. The twenty thirty one Timberwolves
first rounder is a long time away. That is, I
will be if I'm doing the podcast in twenty thirty one,
I will be committed, committed to the grind. I'll be
grown by then. Twenty thirty one seven years away. So

(28:33):
now you look at it, and it's not really a
great haul, considering at any time in the last two years,
Chicago would have given you a first round pick or
maybe two to get rid of zach Lavine. By the way,
Demart Rosen still exists and plays for the Sacramento Kings
and now is going to be a teammate of zach
Lavine again. Where there was friction between those two at

(28:58):
the end of games, Zack Lavine powder like a little bitch,
losing games, causing friction, all kinds of issues. A lot
of data now on Levine and how dermod de Rozen
play together, and I don't like the data. As for
the Bulls, good for you, you get off of Zach
Levine's contract, You get your first round pick back the

(29:19):
top ten protected, but who knows, maybe you'll be outside
the top ten. You get three rotation players in additions,
so you can say you probably did well in the trade.
The Spurs now have Dearon Fox and Harrison Barnes together again,
a backcourt of Chris Paul and Dearon Fox with Wemby,
and they still kept Steph Castle. They didn't have to
get rid of Steph Castle. They didn't have to get

(29:40):
rid of Devin Vazzel. They didn't have to get rid
of Kelvin Johnson, they didn't have to get rid of
They did have to get rid of that Collins, but
they didn't have to get rid of anybody important. Okay,
role players, bench players, not a single starter. Goodness, gracious,
things are really interesting. I think they'll use me be
one more shooter and they can elevate up the power rankings.

(30:03):
What a while last weekend, and we still have five
days until the trade deadline, so keep an eye out.
There's more shit popping. That's all the time that we
have for this episode of the Heat Check. Come back
Wednesday maybe for an a new episode. Check out the
feed for past episodes of many episodes. Much drop on
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(30:24):
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