This is the NBA transfer deal of the year – and it sends shockwaves through the basketball communities of Los Angeles, Dallas and the whole US on Sunday morning
Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis switch teams immediately — in an absolute blockbuster.
Doncic has been traded by the reigning Western Conference champion Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers for Davis. The trade was announced Sunday morning, after the teams got the required league approval on all the terms involved in the deal.
Luka Doncic led Dallas to the NBA Finals last season. Anthony Davis won a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The trade news broke about an hour after the Lakers beat New York at Madison Square Garden. Davis was not with the Lakers for the game; he has been back in Los Angeles because of an abdominal injury that needed assessing.
There were rumors inside the Lakers that the relationship between Davis and the new Lakers coach JJ Reddick has soured in the last weeks – and that Doncic was not happy with Dallas anymore. So now the two famous All Stars changed ship
The deal is very complex: In addition to Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris are headed to the Lakers, while along with Davis the very promising and beloved Max Christie is going to Dallas.
The Utah Jazz also are involved in the deal, getting Jalen Hood-Schifino and two draft picks — second-rounders this year, one from the Lakers and one from the Mavs.
The deal involves two players frequently hurt by injuries – especially in the last weeks.
Doncic has not played for Dallas since Christmas, when he exited a game with a strained left calf. Also Davis is out from the Lakers since five games – spreading rumors that he not only has a muscular problem but also big differences with coach Reddick and the Lakers organisation.
It’s an absolute blockbuster deal: The trade may come at a serious price for Doncic, who now can’t sign a five-year supermax contract extension this summer that could have been worth around $345 million.
It was never clear if the Mavs would have offered such a massive deal. Doncic would have also had an option to leave as a free agent after the 2025-26 season if he wanted, and it’s certain that other teams would have — and probably already were — planning for that scenario with hopes of landing the Slovenian star.
“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,” Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison told The Dallas Morning News. “And so we really felt like we got out in front of that. We know teams, they’ve had it out there, teams have been loading up to try to sign him once that comes available.”
Doncic is still extension eligible this summer, with the max that the Lakers could offer him being five years at about $230 million — a $115 million difference than what the supermax could have been.
The deal, at least for now, pairs Doncic with LeBron James as the new 1-2 punch in Los Angeles, while Davis would be forming a new star duo with Kyrie Irving in Dallas. And it also reunites Doncic with his former teammate, Lakers coach JJ Redick.
Doncic was one of the Mavericks players on the floor when Redick came out of a game for the final time on May 11, 2021.
There was one game still going on in the NBA on Saturday night when reports began swirling of the trade, that being Phoenix-Portland. Suns guard Devin Booker said someone in the stands told him and his teammates of the trade.
“They said Luka. I said, ‘Luka Garza?’” Booker said, referencing a Minnesota center.
Booker wasn’t trying to be funny. He just thought what many probably thought — that there was no way the Mavs would move Doncic.
“It’s crazy, man. I really don’t know what to say about it,” Booker said. “Luka being a guy that everybody has claimed is untouchable and untradeable. The NBA shows you again. Can’t predict. It’s a business. They’re always having a conversation about you. So don’t think you’re safer than you are.”
Added fellow Suns star Kevin Durant: “Insane. It’s crazy. Crazy. Damn, would of never thought Luka Doncic would get traded. At his age, midseason, the NBA is a wild place, man. If he can get traded then anybody is up for grabs.”
And there was immediate shock on social media when the news hit as well.
“Luka getting traded from Dallas has to have a deeper story behind it,” Cleveland center Tristan Thompson wrote on X. “This just doesn’t happen on a random Saturday night.”
“Wait what?” posted Patrick Mahomes, the star Kansas City quarterback who sits courtside at Mavs games occasionally during the offseason, NBA playoffs included.
And Knicks guard Jalen Brunson wondered in another post if it was a joke: “April fools right?” he asked.
Evidently not.
Dallas plays at Cleveland on Sunday, while the Lakers are off until visiting the Los Angeles Clippers on Tuesday night. It’s not clear when Doncic or Davis could play for their new clubs, since both are dealing with injuries without any publicly known firm timetable for their returns.
Among players with at least 400 games, Doncic’s 28.6-point average is third in NBA history behind only Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain — both at 30.1. When healthy, he’s typically somewhere between dynamic and unstoppable.
He was third in the MVP voting last season after averaging 33.9 points, 9.8 assists and 9.2 rebounds per game, easily one of the greatest statistical seasons in league history. Doncic — who turns 26 later this month and has referred to James as an “idol” — had a 73-point game against Atlanta on Jan. 26, 2024, tying the fourth-highest scoring total ever in an NBA game. Only Chamberlain (100), Kobe Bryant (81) and Chamberlain (78) scored more.
Davis, an All-Star pick this year for the 10th time in his career, turns 32 next month. He’s part of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team, helped the Lakers win the NBA title in the bubble in 2020, and — like Doncic — is a five-time All-NBA selection.
Doncic is averaging 28.1 points, 8.3 rebounds and 7.8 assists this season. Davis is averaging 25.7 points and 11.9 rebounds.
The deal comes at a time when the Lakers have an incredible winning streak of 6 – 1 and looked like a real NBA-championship favorite with an impressive LeBron James, who plays better than ever.
Le Bron had 33 points and a triple double again on Saturday in a huge win against the Knicks. The Lakers did not miss Davis at all, they are 4 – 1 since their former best player is out by injury.
With Doncic the new Lakers Coach JJ Redick is clearly going for the championship this season – a development nobody would have expected at the beginning of this season.
