4 winners and 3 losers from Luka Doncic, Anthony Davis trade for Lakers, Mavericks

Here are our winners and losers from the big Luka Doncic, Anthony trade between the Lakers and Mavs.

It’s still hard to believe the Luka Doncic-for-Anthony Davis trade between the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks is real. Trades like this only happen in fantasy basketball or NBA 2K dynasties; in the real world, 25-year-olds with five First-Team All-NBA nods do not get traded without forcing their way out. Doncic never asked for a trade from the Mavericks, but he suddenly finds himself as the new face of the Lakers anyway.

It’s possible that lead Mavs executive Nico Harrison is the only person in the basketball world who believes this is a good trade for the Mavericks. Meanwhile, it feels like only the Lakers could be hand delivered a talent like Doncic without a true bidding war.

We’ve already handed out grades for every side of the three-team trade involving the Lakers, Mavericks, and Jazz. Now let’s zoom out and look at the big picture winners and losers after this deal.

Winner: Lakers exceptionalism

If there’s one thing you can consistently count on in the NBA, it’s the Lakers landing superstars. It doesn’t matter how it happens or whether it makes sense, the defining players of every generation somehow tend to find themselves playing for the Lakers in every era.

Like, seriously.

Come on.

Adding Doncic fits so snugly into the Lakers history of adding generational talents. From Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, and Wilt Chamberlain to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson to Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant to LeBron James and Davis, the Lakers always figure out a way get superstars. It’s even more unbelievable that the Lakers were able to pull it off this time without the star even question even pushing his way to LA.

One way or another, the Lakers usually come out on top.

Loser: Mavs fans

Imagine being a Mavs fan right now. One minute, you have one of the greatest young stars in the NBA, a true face of the franchise who has carried your team to the NBA Finals just last year, and gave you a long window of annual title contention just with his mere presence. The next minute, your GM is trying to justify a trade literally everyone thinks is unforgivable for your team.

Looking through social posts from Mavs fans right now is just depressing. They range from pure anger:

To sadness:

To their biggest supporters openly saying they’re quitting the team:

Nico Harrison is never going to be able to show his face to the fans again. Doncic should have had his jersey retired in Dallas with a statue outside the arena. He should have blessed this fanbase with a sustained 15-year run of contention. He’s that type of talent. Somehow, one rogue executive who thinks he’s smarter than everyone just ended that in one fell swoop.

Winner: Oklahoma City Thunder

The Oklahoma City Thunder entered last year’s NBA playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. Their playoff run came to an end in the second round at the hands of the Mavericks, with Doncic engineering a six-game series upset with his brilliant mix of scoring and playmaking.

Oklahoma City is even better this year, and now one of their toughest competitors just became an easier playoff matchup. The Mavs are still going to be very good with Anthony Davis in the lineup, but there’s no replacing Luka’s elite offensive creation ability. It will be easier to take Kyrie Irving out of the game without Doncic to worry about, and right now there just isn’t another creator on the roster OKC would fear with the ball in his hands.

Oklahoma City vs. Dallas was set to be a Western Conference bloodbath for the next five years with Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander going head-to-head in their primes. Even if this wasn’t Dallas’ best shot to make a run with Doncic facing a calf injury, the Mavericks should have had a long window of being a thorn in OKC’s side. That window just got shorter and less treacherous for the Thunder after this trade.

Winner: Lakers trade rumors this week

The Lakers’ roster had a void at center even with Davis on the roster. With Davis gone, the Lakers’ current starting big man would be Jaxson Hayes, with Trey Jemison as his backup. Fortunately, the Lakers still have a few more days to make a move for a big man, and there are several solid players available.

Expect the Lakers to acquire a center before Thursday’s Feb. 6 trade deadline. LA’s preferred target is probably Myles Turner, but the Indiana Pacers aren’t going to give him up without a good return. Other options for the Lakers could be Nikola Vucevic, Robert Williams III, Clint Capela, and Jonas Valanciunas.

I also wouldn’t be 100 percent convinced that LeBron James will remain a Laker past the deadline. James reportedly wants to stay in Los Angeles, and he’s one of two players i the NBA with a no-trade clause. Let’s say the Golden State Warriors call and offer James an opportunity to play with Steph Curry. Is LeBron really turning that down now that Doncic is going to run the offense for large portions of the game? The Warriors tried to trade for James last year. I still think there’s a decent chance LeBron is a Warrior by the end of the week.

Loser: Mavs offense

Dallas almost always had a top-10 offense with Luka at the controls. Doncic was able to soak up so much usage with elite productivity that Dallas could count on him to create great scoring looks for himself and his teammates whenever they had the ball. Doncic was also always at his best in the NBA Playoffs. How do you trade a guy like that?

The Mavs offense suddenly has a huge creation void after this trade. Kyrie Irving is excellent, but it’s hard to view him as an elite primary creator at this point in his career. Irving was at his best playing off Doncic’s gravity, but now he’s going to be tasked with creating everything in the halfcourt. This is a huge bummer for the other players on Dallas’ roster, too: Dereck Lively II and Doncic had great chemistry in the pick-and-roll, Doncic helped P.J. Washington play the best offensive basketball of his career, and he was unlocking Klay Thompson this season, too.

The Mavs offense is going to a giant hit even with Davis plugged in to the front court. There’s just no way around it.

Winner: Mavs defense

Dallas’ defense was solid already this year, ranking No. 12 in the league according to basketball-reference. With Davis, the Mavs’ defense better be elite, because they are going to have a much tougher time scoring.

Harrison gave his ridiculous “defense wins championships” quote after trading Doncic, and that’s going to be put to the test. Yes, Dallas’ defense should be awesome with Davis and Lively forming an absurdly long and athletic combination in the front court. Their perimeter defense should improve too just by getting rid of Doncic.

For as blah as Luka is as a defender, he’s still clearly one of the league’s most valuable talents. Dallas’ defense better be top-2 in the league from this point on if they have any hope of justifying this trade (they still don’t).

Loser: Nico Harrison’s reputation

A small sampling of the posts you see after searching Nico Harrison’s name on social media right now:

The Mavericks better win an NBA championship with Anthony Davis. Otherwise, Harrison’s reputation is never going to recover from this.