The biggest NBA trade news of all time hit fans’ phones less than an hour before midnight on February 1, as the Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Doncic, Markieff Morris, and Maxi Kleber to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a first-round pick.
No one ever expected the Mavs to give up on Doncic, as he had just led the team to the NBA Finals less than a year prior and made it clear that he wanted to remain a Maverick for life, but Nico Harrison had other plans.
Harrison had concerns about Doncic’s conditioning, off-court habits, work ethic, leadership, and more, and rather than allowing him to finish the season out and signing him to a supermax extension over the summer, they traded him to Los Angeles for Davis. Harrison and Davis share a tight bond, and he was excited to start a new defense-first era with Davis at the core.Harrison didn’t shop Doncic around the league when trading for Davis, which significantly limited the Mavs when it comes to potential return packages, and that is the exact mistake that the Milwaukee Bucks refuse to make when it comes to Giannis Antetokounmpo.
It has already been reported that the Mavs won’t shop the No. 1 pick, even if that landed them Antetokounmpo, but that doesn’t mean that the Bucks won’t trade him this offseason. While Antetokounmpo hasn’t formally requested a trade, that could come soon once the two sides meet this summer, and Bucks GM Jon Horst isn’t just going to settle for any trade package if he deals his superstar.
On The Ringer’s NBA Podcast, Sam Amick of The Athletic reported that Horst is going to consider all avenues before trading Antetokounmpo, and plainly “go for blood.”
“Jon is not going to just try to be on good terms with Giannis, he’s trying to do right by the Bucks,” Amick said.
Horst is fully prepared to get whatever he can for Antetokounmpo, as he remains one of the best players in the league, and if he doesn’t like the offers on the table, he’ll likely just keep him in Milwaukee.
“Like, they want every scenario to gut the other team,” Amick said about Horst.
And this is exactly where Harrison and the Mavericks went wrong when it comes to trading Doncic.
Instead of getting everything they could for their superstar, they settled for Davis, Christie, and one first-round pick. This isn’t a knock on Davis, as he is one of the best bigs in the league, but Harrison didn’t do his due diligence by shopping Doncic to the entire league and finding the best possible trade package for him.
Harrison shopping Doncic and trading him to the team with the best trade offer would have “gut” the other team, just like Horst and the Bucks are going to do if they do indeed trade Antetokounmpo, and Harrison doing this could have changed everything when it comes to the return package they got for Doncic.
Settling for a lackluster trade package is one of the most criticized parts about Nico Harrison’s decision to trade Luka Doncic, and if he could have gone back in time, he should have followed Jon Horst and the Bucks’ plan with Giannis Antetokounmpo.
