Mavericks solely made Luka Doncic obtainable to Lakers and one thriller staff, per stories

In a transfer our Mavericks consultants at Mavs Moneyball are calling “the worst second within the historical past of DFW sports activities,” Dallas made a commerce sending Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, a first-round decide, and Max Christie in a blockbuster deal late Saturday evening.

Within the aftermath of the deal, the prevailing cries from NBA followers, Mavericks supporters and basketball punditry alike had been united in asking “why didn’t the Mavericks make Luka obtainable to extra groups?” and “was this actually the very best bundle they might get?”

The response is smart, as a result of it’s uncommon for a transfer to be so beautiful and fully out of nowhere that it catches almost everybody concerned with the NBA off-guard. But it surely seems there’s a purpose for that — preliminary stories are that the Mavs certainly didn’t make Doncic extensively obtainable, selecting to solely negotiate with the Lakers… and one thriller staff.

In accordance with veteran NBA insider Marc Stein’s newest dispatch on his Substack, the one individuals with the Mavs who actually even knew this was a chance had been proprietor Patrick Dumont and GM Nico Harrison, the latter of whom apparently determined to only go after Davis and never even see what the market was for Doncic (emphasis mine):

Harrison made the choice, supported by new Mavericks majority proprietor Patrick Dumont, to pursue Davis and just about nobody else. The Mavericks didn’t make Dončić obtainable to groups for the richest doable haul of draft picks. Sources say that the Mavericks are satisfied that this transfer brings again a top-10 participant within the league in addition to a 2029 first-round decide from the Lakers.

That “just about” leaves open the likelihood that it wasn’t simply the Lakers they put in cursory calls to, although, and Sam Amick of The Athletic wrote that there was not less than one different staff who turned down the Mavericks’ advances about buying and selling Doncic for his or her star:

The Mavericks had been tremendously involved with Dončić’s sturdiness — or lack thereof — and satisfied his strategy to the sport would proceed to be an issue within the years to come back. But whereas there was no scarcity of groups shocked that the Mavericks didn’t broadcast their willingness to maneuver Dončić, league sources say there was not less than one staff apart from the Lakers that was approached by Dallas almost two weeks in the past in regards to the prospect of swapping Dončić for an additional star.

That bid was turned down, however the message despatched within the course of had been clear: There was hassle brewing in Dallas. And the Lakers, ultimately, had been those who reaped the advantages.

Each stories depart us with an fascinating query…

Which different NBA star did the Mavericks attempt to commerce Luka Doncic for?

Theories abound, and we’ll in all probability by no means know for sure. Nevertheless, it’s simple to surprise if Jason Kidd, who simply received again a participant he had received the 2020 NBA championship with in Davis, pushed his bosses to go after one other participant he had coached earlier than in Giannis Antetokounmpo, given their mutual admiration for each other each within the aftermath of Kidd’s firing and through the years since.

Mark Cuban is not working as (primarily) proprietor/GM for the Mavs, energy abhors a vacuum, and Kidd is a famous coup fanatic with basketball accolades to woo Harrison and their new bosses with. So if we discover out later a part of this deal was his engineering, it wouldn’t be a shock, and neither would the Mavs throwing up a warmth examine to see if they might get Giannis amidst a bizarre season with the Bucks.

Photograph by Juan Ocampo/NBAE through Getty Photos

Once more, we’ll in all probability by no means know for sure, however the listing of groups that might flip down buying and selling their star for Doncic might be extraordinarily restricted, and will solely embrace:

And that actually is likely to be the tip of the listing. Perhaps you might throw Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves on there and Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors for legacy causes, nevertheless it’s a brief, brief listing, and the truth that (apparently) the one different staff the Mavs known as stated “no” to buying and selling for a consensus top-five participant within the NBA reveals simply how selective they had been being of their targets, and the way secretive they needed to maintain Doncic commerce talks.

Nonetheless, for everybody mad that the Lakers had been seemingly capable of purchase Doncic with out having to compete with every other gives, it seems that’s not completely true, even when that certainly received’t quiet league conspiracies in regards to the NBA attempting to assist the Lakers right here.