Reviewing the craziest trade in basketball history
On Feb. 1, 2025, a random Saturday night in the middle of the season, the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks decided to shake the National Basketball Association (NBA) to its core. The Mavericks sent point guard Luka Dončić, power forward Maxi Kleber, and power forward Markieff Morris to the Lakers in exchange for power forward Anthony Davis, shooting guard Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick. The Utah Jazz helped facilitate this trade by acquiring point guard Jalen Hood-Schifino and two 2025 second-round picks. This is likely the biggest trade in NBA history, so here is a breakdown of its implications.
A good starting point would be the components that do not make a massive difference in the long run. Utah’s compensation in this trade was simply to help close the deal. Jalen Hood-Schifino is a young guard who has yet to prove what he can be in the NBA, and the two second-round picks they acquired could possibly not even be signed after draft night.
Other components of this trade that are not massive changes are Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris going to the Lakers and Max Christie and the 2029 first-round pick going to the Mavericks. Kleber and Morris are aging big men who have not played that much this season. On the other hand, Max Christie is a younger guard who has been doing pretty well with the opportunities given to him out in Los Angeles. It still does not, however, make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things.
The 2029 first-round pick could also gain some value, as forward LeBron James will likely not be with the Lakers come this season. The Lakers could have a more depleted roster, making the pick more valuable. Again, when two of the best players in the NBA are headlining this deal, a first-round pick in four years is not all that noteworthy.
The reason that this trade is one of the biggest ever is because of the headliners. Luka Dončić is a Laker, and Anthony Davis is a Maverick. There is a lot to unpack here. Luka Dončić is a 25-year-old superstar who has been essentially unstoppable since his first game in the NBA. Anthony Davis is also a superstar—but is 31 years old and has had injury issues in the past. So far, this trade does not make much sense for the Mavericks.
The next issue is contracts. Luka would have been eligible for the 345 million dollar supermax contract over five years had he stayed in Dallas. The Dallas Mavericks front office was not committed to paying Dončić the massive supermax contract. This is an odd reason for the Mavericks to trade their star player, as they already have the ninth-highest payroll in the NBA, so adding Luka’s supermax to keep him on the team until 2030 would make sense.
The only reason that the Mavericks wouldn’t sign Luka to that contract is because they genuinely did not believe he was worth all that money. Again, on the surface, this does not make sense because he is widely considered one of the best players in the NBA at 25 years old, leading the team to their third finals appearance last year.
The final issue the Mavericks had with Luka was roster composition. The Mavericks front office believed Luka was a defensive liability and needed more defense to compete for a championship. Sure, Luka is not the best defender in the world, and Anthony Davis is a former Defensive Player of the Year finalist, however, you could have added defensive pieces to your roster that did not cost you your franchise player.
Luka Dončić was never the problem. The Mavericks could bring up anything they feel the need to say. Still, at the end of the day, this is an example of an organization that is literally games away from becoming champions but does not want to commit financially. Unless the Mavericks are hiding something that happened behind the scenes, this was likely the Mavericks backing out of a championship window to keep some money and play the long game. This trade spells disaster for the Mavericks, as Anthony Davis is already injured and is expected to miss at least a month of action.