As the NBA trade deadline approached, fans saw tons of action around the league in the waning days of deal-making. All-star players found new homes, role players and young studs found new opportunities, and, most notably — the entire internet paused for a day when one of the most blockbuster moves in basketball history happened.
What the f—? // Aidan Kasner, Sports Editor
This is exactly what I said when I read the Twitter notification — yes, I refuse to call it X — that NBA superstar Luka Dončić was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.
I genuinely couldn’t believe it — and I still can’t. Why would the Mavericks ever do this? Absolutely baffling. No disrespect to Anthony Davis, as he is a player I have always admired. Davis is an all-star defender plus a revolutionary player — one of the first “modern” big men.
But Dončić is an all-time player coming off of a finals appearance, and I just do not understand giving this up for an aging, injury-prone player — regardless of whether Dončić had so-called conditioning issues. He was supposedly the cornerstone of the Dallas franchise.
Smaller headlines also saw big names adopt new colors, like Jimmy Butler and De’Aaron Fox. In July, DeMar DeRozan got shipped out West, leaving the Bulls for the Kings in a three-way deal with the Spurs. The three organizations got together again in a deal that saw Zach Lavine go to Sacramento and Fox go to the Spurs. The biggest gain, though, is the new, young and extremely talented duo in Alamo City. Now that San Antonio has Fox to pair with generational Victor Wembanyama, there’s no doubt this team will compete at the top within the next few years.
The Mavs lose the Dončić trade even if they win the title this season // Matthew Scabilloni, Assistant Sports Editor
Trading away a superstar is never smart, never mind a 25-year-old superstar who just led your team to the NBA Finals. But the Dallas Mavericks still did that by trading away Dončić.
Even if the Mavericks win the title this season because they traded for Davis — the star the Mavs traded Dončić away for — their trade with the Los Angeles Lakers is still not worth it and is a bad trade.
Dončić is one of the best players in the NBA right now, at 25. In the NBA, players are in their prime between 27 and 31. So the Mavericks traded away one of the best players in the NBA before he even reached his prime.
Dallas has to hope and pray they win a title this season, because if they don’t, the trade was one of the most one-sided trades in NBA history.
But even if the Mavericks win the NBA Championship this season, the Lakers still win the trade, because Dončić isn’t going to win just one championship for the Lakers — he is going to win multiple.
The Dallas Mavericks have to win multiple championships for this to count as a fair trade. Dončić is a generational talent, and what the Mavericks got in return is less than what the Brooklyn Nets got from trading Mikal Bridges to the Knicks — the third-best player on his team.
Trades, whether big or small, combine for one of the best trade deadlines in history // Ari Meyer, Staff Writer
The NBA trade deadline produced possibly the craziest trade in the history of the four major professional sports leagues in the USA. The Dončić trade saw one team acquire a young star for pennies while the other completely mortgaged their future for seemingly no reason.
One all-star level season from Dončić, which is the norm and not the exception, would cement this deal as an immediate win for the Lakers, even though it is viewed as a win for the Lakers by most outlets.
Outside of the Dončić trade, the Washington Wizards began making big moves to help start the process of improving the team after their rebuild. Acquiring more picks, as well as Khris Middleton and Marcus Smart, allowed the Wizards to begin the process of becoming better after becoming worse without jeopardizing their chance at the No. 1 overall pick for the coming draft.
Fox joining the Spurs was a little unexpected, but now San Antonio can begin contending after developing Victor Wembanyama into a near-MVP level player.
It’s unlikely we’ll see a trade deadline like this in the next couple of decades across all four major professional sports in the USA.
