Many in the NBA community are of the belief that Mavs GM Nico Harrison must have been having a brain aneurysm when he traded away the face of the franchise – Luka Doncic.
But, the team have convinced themselves that it was the right decision.
Harrison “had more doubts about Doncic than others in the organization — such as Cuban or Nowitzki — did,” ESPN say.
Firstly, there was the issue of his looming supermax contract.
He was eligible to receive a five-year, $345 million extension during the 2025 offseason and the Mavs were not keen at all to honor that.
“They were terrified of a supermax commitment,” ESPN’s Tim MacMahon said on The Hoop Collective.
Harrison told the Dallas Morning News, “We really feel like we got ahead of what was going to be a tumultuous summer, him being eligible for the supermax and also a year away from him being able to opt out of any contract.”
But the more pressing issue for the Mavs seemed to be Luka’s weight and conditioning.
The team, including Jason Kidd, has expressed concerns publicly to the media and privately with Doncic about his conditioning and weight fluctuations.
Luka gained weight when he sat out six for weeks after straining his left calf for the fourth time in three years.
It has also now been revealed that when he was listed as out for 11 days in late November with a wrist injury, it was actually to “provide Doncic time to shed weight after he had ballooned into the high 260s”, per ESPN.
The Doncic-Davis trade was also meant to originally included multiple firsts and Dalton Knecht, but Kirk Goldsberry says that Lakers GM Rob Pelinka likely had some thoughts.
“A deal got whittled down, and I think Rob Pelinka was able to convince the Mavs that Luka is a lot of risk… His drinking, his weight problem…,” Goldsberry said on The Bill Simmons Podcast.
(Whether Pelinka was genuinely concerned about Luka or just played it up to Dallas is another thing, but we digress).
Another NBA insider spoke on Luka and said that people within the Mavericks feared that he could end up like Joel Embiid due to poor conditioning.
“The biggest thing, when talking to people around the league, was the concern about Luka’s conditioning,” Fedor said. “As we all know, and as has been reported, he’s gotten up to 270 pounds. According to my sources, the Dallas Mavericks were feeling like it could end up being a Joel Embiid-type situation.”
The Mavericks all in all, were reportedly “over” Luka and didn’t like the fact he hired his own full-time ‘body team’, Marc Stein reported.
“With Doncic, meanwhile, one phrase you keep hearing, basically, is that the Mavericks are over him. Dallas has likewise said to have cooled on its star’s insistence on hiring his own team of training experts — even though it was done at his own expense — to handle the bulk of his medical and nutritional needs separate from the club starting with the 2023-24 season.”
Despite his issues, Doncic is still only 25 years old is one of the most talented NBA players in the league.
If the Lakers can find their groove with him and get him to switch to low-carb beer, the rest of the league needs to watch out.
READ MORE: Lakers GM Rob Pelinka Responds to Anthony Davis-Luka Doncic Trade
