[Zach Lowe] On Dallas Mavericks: “The [Luka] trade is just going to be inescapable. You had a proven finals level team. And you took this gigantic risk, shrinking your championship window to AD’s age curve and Kyrie’s age curve. The team as constructed is not good enough to do anything in the West.”

43 comments

  1. Yeah the Mavs window closed when they traded Luka, it’s arguably the dumbest decision in sports history.

  2. “I keep saying the same thing, but defense wins championships,” Harrison said. “I believe that we have a championship caliber team, not only for now, but also for the future.”

  3. I mean we’re really not hearing anything new on this. It was a catastrophically bad trade that killed the franchise for years (even WITH Flagg in the building). That this same type of commentary is being made again and again is just reinforcing just how bad it was.

    Look, I’m happy, but I do feel bad for Mavs fans. I’ve never seen a GM purposefully take a finals team and turn it into such a disaster.

  4. I feel like the league didn’t make this trade nearly as much of a big deal as they should have. It’s been said a million times but how the hell do you trade Luka without shopping around for the best offer?

  6. they didnt just close their own window they opened a massive one for another team who as long as they are ran even slightly okay will likely be a top 3 seed in the west for like 5+ years

  7. This is also with them absolutely lucking out in the lottery, this is one of the best case scenarios for the mavs and it still may be the worst trade of all time

  10. The age curve was the most puzzling for me personally. Even if u view AD as more matured or as the same level as Luka, speeding up the timeline to match AD’s who at most has 5 solid years in the league is insane to me. And 5 is generous, especially since he has such injury concerns. Straight baffling considering Luka is one of those players whose game will age well as he doesn’t rely that much on speed or verticality but rather angles and upper body strength, as well as shots. AND he has a slow game dictating his own tempo, which will definitely age perfectly and get better as he gets older and leans towards it more. Luka could’ve gave u 10+ years, u chose less than 5 mediocre ones, and its not even mediocre, its horrid

  11. What’s truly pathetic about the Mavericks is that they celebrated the No. 1 pick as if it matters after losing a generational talent like Luka fucking Doncic.

  12. Yep they’re garbage.  By the time Flagg is a reliable allstar, the others will have all aged out, if they haven’t already.

    Good job Nico!

    The best hope for Mavs fans is the league gave them the same deal they gave the Cavs, multiple 1st picks if their team remains garbage.

  13. So they basically didn’t think he was worth the supermax. Dude balls out and sells tickets. Nothing excites me another current team at all

  15. This trade ruined the team, league and sport I spent over 30 years being a mega fan of.

    I got to take my newborn son to the WCF and Finals. I thought I’d get to share memories like that with him for a lifetime and in one fatal move that was taken away from us.

    From the bottom of my heart, fuck Nico Harrison.

  16. I also keep hearing that they are playing Flagg out of position. That can’t be helping.

  19. Its crazy how fast that trade killed my goodwill/fandom. 4-5 games a year for a decade. I had fond memories of the Dirk/Monta years in the post-championship era

    The trade, and then combined with the obvious fix in the Flagg lottery just killed it. Everything stinks about it. I literally couldnt care less about this team now. Its so wild. I feel more emotion for so many more teams

  22. The trade was personal. Nico idolized Kobe and could not stand to see the sloppy, overweight Slovenian sitting on the bench. Stats be damned.

  23. Dumbass Nico who is so obsessed wit defense failed to realize how important Luka playmaking/gravity was to this roster. The looks he was getting guys like lively,Klay ect can’t be unstated. Lively has badly regressed, klay looks totally washed and the team as a whole doesn’t jell as good. Now your asking a 19 year old who’s natural position has never been PG to take over the playmaking duties. Just such an incredibly stupid move.

  24. Literally any shred of success after Dirk era came only BECAUSE OF LUKA. That’s why it made me insane to blame him for anything. Now they got rid of him. Okay good luck reaching any height ever close to where Luka took them.

  25. The nba messed up when they let a disorganized franchise inherit a generational talent. No doubt this will stunt flag’s development.

  27. I live in Ireland where basketball is an absolutely tiny sport in terms of popularity, and we even had lads here sharing memes about “the dumbest move in the history of sport”.

  28. I’ve said this right after the trade… Where was Austin Reeves in this? Forget about what Austin is doing right now .. nico needed to squeeze as much juice out of that orange and he didnt

  29. Also – how good Austin Reeves is now is also a problem embarrassment. Trading Luka was bad – but how was Nico so incompetent that he couldn’t get AR in the deal

  30. Definitely gonna go down as one of the worst trades in nba history. Who willingly trades away a generational super star who is just entering his prime lol. Everyone knew this was a dumb trade except Nico

  31. The Curse of the Bambino to the Red Sox

    is equal to

    The Curse of the Don to the Mavericks.

    The Mavs might have incurred a 100 year curse..

  32. I love this. It’s the dumbest trade I’ve ever seen. Not many trades are universally panned instantly like that. Everyone knows it’s a bad trade. The only question was how bad. It turns out that it’s probably worse than expected.

    And as Kofie reminded me on YouTube today, Nico made that trade WITHOUT knowing he’d get Flagg. The team he thought was going to be championship ready would actually have been worse than this. It’s fucking mental.

  33. Occam’s Razor should apply.

    The most likely explanation is that the Adelson’s are cheap and Nico has a personal grudge against Luka.

  34. Who could have possibly guessed that this trade wouldn’t work out for the Mavs? It seemed like such a great deal for them at the time! (/s, because it’s 2025)

  35. How does Nico still have a job?

    This had to have been the owners decision and Nico is just the fall guy

  36. As a MFFL, it sucks to see them reduced to cannon fodder for the buzz saw that is the Western Conference. At least Luka is happy. So that makes me happy.

  37. It’s still mindblowing to me that they didn’t even give Luka another shot after he got them to the Finals. Now – even after getting incredibly lucky and winning the Cooper Flagg lottery – they’re in last place in the West. Nico is the worst GM of all time.

  38. I’m glad he is a Laker but none of these dudes on these talking shows want to point out the obvious – the league is corrupt. While I don’t go as far as they determine winners and losers but they are moving players to markets for better ratings. The last two drafts have also been rigged

  39. I literally stopped watching the NBA because of this trade, I cannot believe it and still think it is kind of some corruption thing.

  40. Lakers were dead in the water, and then Dallas sells its soul to save them. Inexplicable under the table deal between Nico, Dumont, and Pelinka.

  41. Cooper Flagg might be the biggest loser in all of this. He could have gone to a better run organization, like the Hornets

  42. It really blew my mind how many people were hyping this team up when they drafted Cooper. Everyone can pretend now that everyone shit on the Mavericks the entire time but people were talking about the Mavericks being a dangerous team this year and I just never understood it.

  43. And the West is already by far the harder conference to get out of. The East feels wide open in comparison. The Thunder alone will be insanely hard to get past for any team.

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