The Jazz had no idea they were enabling possibly the biggest trade in the history of the NBA and general manager Justin Zanik has spoken about it.
Zanik has since said he’d be having some buyer’s remorse if he knew he was helping the Lakers get one of the brightest young stars in the league.
“Rob Pelinka even said in his press conference introducing Luka that it was a ‘gift’ and I think that is how a lot of my colleagues — I don’t want to speak for them — but how we all kind of felt,” Zanik said on the broadcast of the Jazz-Lakers game Wednesday.
“Obviously, it kind of re-shaped the Western Conference,” Zanik added. “When we are up there with those guys very soon, maybe I would care a little bit more about being the third team. At this point where we are, if we were in the playoffs right now I’d be asking both of them what is ‘Going on here’ and basically ‘I’m not doing it’ but where we are the ability to pick up stuff, basically for free, to do something that another team would have done anyway, that was really sweet.”
Unfortunately for Dallas, Anthony Davis, who they got in return for Luka, didn’t even last one game before going down with an adductor strain.
Both Doncic and Davis are often injured, but despite that, Zanik backed Mavs GM Nico Harrison’s decision.
“Nico [Harrison] in Dallas, they do a great job,” Zanik said. “They obviously had their reasons and wanting to improve the defense and got a top 15 player in their own right there, you know, they decided that was in their best interest.”
Shams is reporting that Davis will multiple weeks with the strain, while Luka just had his second outing with the purple and gold.
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