Luka Dončić, LeBron James and the biggest winners and losers of the Lakers-Mavericks trade

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Any time a newsbreaker has to follow up a report of a trade with, “Yes, this is real,” and “It’s 1000% real,” you know you have an absolute brain-melting stunner of a swap on your hands.

We awoke on Sunday morning in a world where Luka Dončić is a Laker, Anthony Davis is a Maverick, and the landscape of the NBA has changed. The reverberations from this one will be felt far, wide and for an awfully long time; let’s start getting our arms around it.

What follows is a stab at a first draft of history — a thumbnail sketch of who and what seems to have been helped and hurt through one of the most shocking moves the NBA has ever seen. We begin with the team that, yet again, lands the brightest superstar:

WINNER: Lakers exceptionalism

Strip out the spin, and here’s what’s left: The Los Angeles Lakers just traded a 31-year-old big man in his 13th season, a pair of 21-year-old guards not widely seen as future stars, a 2029 first-round draft pick and the Clippers’ 2025 second-round pick … for one of the five best basketball players on the planet.

Through six NBA seasons, Luka Dončić ranks third in league history in points per game, 12th in assists per game, and fourth in assist percentage and triple-doubles. He’s made the All-NBA First Team for the last five seasons, and has finished in the top five in MVP voting three times. He was the unquestioned best player on an NBA Finals team seven months ago. He is 25 years old and under contract through the end of next season (with a player option for 2026-27), giving the Lakers a long runway to work out a new longer-term extension to ensure that he will be the signature superstar of the NBA franchise most associated with signature superstars for the foreseeable future. (Which, in fairness, given the state of play in an NBA where Luka friggin’ Dončić just got traded, might not be as long as you’d think.)

This is a dream scenario for a Lakers franchise whose hopes for perennial championship contention after signing LeBron James and trading for Anthony Davis had resulted in one title, one Western Conference finals berth, and three play-in tournament…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/luka-doncic-lebron-james-and-the-biggest-winners-and-losers-of-the-lakers-mavericks-trade-004147739.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2025-02-03 00:41:00

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