Luka Doncic Discussion: Playoff Luka Engaged

agree that AD was already past his prime, and i was pretty sure we would maybe get two more years of high end production out of him at best.

regarding playing center--i think AD thinks he can shoot. the numbers don't suggest it, but i can't explain it...he just acts like he's expecting those shots to fall and is surprised when they don't. i also think the playing the 4 thing is also heavily about defense, where it's hard to grind against heavier dudes for 30+ mpg. i think we could have gone back to playing like we did in 2020 and been successful, but we never really tried it. it was clear that ham, redick, and i guess the front office never really believed we could.

i don't think they could fire him this quickly even if they disagreed--too many other things went wrong that were out of his control this year. BUT if they disagreed, they wouldn't have sent dumont on a press tour in the aftermath in support of the trade. if they were as baffled as the rest of us, they would have just kept quiet and said they let the gm do his job.

yeah, that injury is going to make it basically impossible to evaluate the trade on its supposed merits for dallas. the whole idea was that they could move a superstar and still contend for a short period of time. nico's bet was that AD's prime would last as long as luka's, basically (bad bet, imo, but that's clearly what he was thinking). but if irving misses nearly half that period of time, the whole thing is over.

 

You don't trade Luka for AD without the ownership being FULLY onboard. That just doesn't happen. I would even go beyond and say it's more a owner move than a GM one.

The ownership sets the vision and GM executes it. Gafford or PJ trades are GMs job. When you're trading your superstar and franchise face, it's in the owner's scope.
Nico may have started the idea, but it's still an owner call, imo

 

Looking forward to this one.

 

Look at Luka's stats at Dallas
Crazy insane.
Thank you,Nico

 

They have options..I fully expect them to make some moves.

Tinkerbell would fit in great there IMO, all they need is a couple of perimeter players. That team is going to be top 6 next season. Kyrie might not be out as long as you think either.

There is optimism Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving could be fully recovered and return from his torn left ACL by January 2026, sources told ESPN's Shams Charania on Wednesday.

There is also an expectation around the team that Irving will be able to play a good amount of the 2025-26 season upon his return, the sources said.

 

Full interview

 

Man. He was so hurt by this… no wonder it has taken him so long to get over it. Love how his manager is in that interview, and brings the phone over. Look at the way Rob was talking and holding Max Christie in Dallas (I know he isn’t Luka, but still). It speaks to who Rob is.

Then you hear that Nico never even told Luka?! Never even called Luka?! Your franchise superstar? Just wow. You would think a courtesy call at minimum would go out for any player, let alone your cornerstone. I wonder if anyone on the Mavs told Luka, but from this interview I can’t say for certain if Luka just found out through socials or something…

Love him saying he wants to stay here. We need to give him whatever he wants, now and in the future. We love you Luka, we all want you to be with the Lakers for the rest of your career. So fitting in the purple and gold. It’s very clear that you’re the one who should lead us. You were meant for the Lakers! Show us playoff Luka tonight!!!!

 

i think it's pretty obvious that nico absolutely HATED luka for whatever reason. to the point where it wouldn't surprise me if he actually wanted his legacy to be the guy who traded luka

 

Contrast how the Lakers treat their players. If I was a player, I would MUCH rather be on the Lakers than the Mavericks. Especially now. I bet that Rob called AD, would be very surprised to find out that nobody talked with him about it.

 

If Luka knew he was about to get traded... he might not have been a Laker now. I still don't know how they pulled it off

 

Luka with the Mavs really reminds me of Freddie Freeman with the Braves in the way how much he loved his team, the city and playing for both. We fans often treat professionals like they are robots and should just suck it up and move on or get over it etc etc etc. Yet, in the same breath we get mad when they don't live and die for the colors. This interview shows the background to how emotion is involved in business decisions and it isn't JUST how much they get paid to play.

Freddie didn't really get into his LA (Dodgers) role until we went and played in ATL. Luka, though he was balling anyway, finally got his closure once he went back the Dallas. Now he will bring all that passion to the Lakers. AND, like Freddie, I hope he brings a Championship to LA. Like he said, "I want to win a Championship!"

TIme is now.

 

So, the reason Cuban was a moron...He was an incredibly passionate fan. I get that. He still is. The problem is he ran the team like it. At first he was a great owner to have. He spent money to win and did what it took even though he made mistakes. I'm cool with that.

Then came 2006. The Mavs won that finals against Miami. The refs turned that series. The Mavs were up 2-0 and up on Miami by 14 late in the 3rd when D Wade started barreling into the paint and getting any call he wanted. Cuban constantly complained about the refs, to the refs, ran onto the court, etc. Donahue said that the refs turned the series. Cuban even had an FBI agent he never named that he talked to. He had hired the agent as a consultant to see if he should sue the league over that finals and the corruption. The agent investigated and concluded that the refs turned the series. However, he told Cuban not to bite the hand that feeds him. Basically, if he sued the NBA Stern would force him to sell.

In 2011 right before the playoffs the team held a meeting with Cuban. They told him there would be serious consequences from THEM if he didn't keep his mouth shut during the playoffs about the refs. He then broke up the title team because there was a rumor that Chris Paul and Dwight Howard wanted to team up together in Dallas. Obviously that never happened. But, he acted as the GM and had no idea what he was doing.

He has made some decent moves as far as finances here and there. But, overall, he made his money by selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo for over $1B. He had swiped the idea from other open source streamers and "created it". Hardly any long time Mavs fans like Cuban anymore.

One thing I will say though. Cuban would NEVER have allowed Luka to be traded. He was loyal. But, it's all good cause I love me some Lakers now. We just need to get some better depth and more at the 5. Hayes is ok. But, Gafford would be HUGE for this team.

 

This was 100% Nico. Jason Kidd also knew long before he said he did. They were frustrated with Luka for some reason. I don't buy the workout bit. They fired everyone he was close to on the staff. When they made the finals last year there was a video of Luka and Finley back stage after the final game of the WCF where Fin took a beer out of his hand.

They didn't like how Luka did things and wanted him gone. The final nail in the coffin was when Nico told him to go on an east coast road trip and he didn't go so that he could continue to rehab. That's when Nico reached out to Rob and finished the deal.

I thought Nico had made some great moves. However, I found out that Dennis Lindsey was a consultant guiding him on moves. Lindsey left after the finals last year. He is now the president of the Pistons. He built a great Jazz team, a great Mavs team, and now a Pistons team.

 

i keep saying it would be good if we hired a dennis lindsey type to help rob.

and my two cents on cuban was that it was when he played gm that he was a problem. other than that, i liked him. the league fixing the 2006 finals was more about promoting wade than punishing cuban, imo. they thought they could manufacture a jordan, imo. also, stern was just sort of a bad guy. anyway, i don't pin that on cuban--that was just epic corruption from the top down.

i don't know if harrison hated luka--i think he just felt like luka was bigger than the franchise (he was right). when they tried to rein him in, it didn't work. it's clear they want more control over their large investments--which should make the irving contract negotiations pretty wild. talk about another guy who's not going to respond positively to attempts to micromanage him...

anyway, would be good if luka got some assistance for the remainder of this series, else it will be short--and not in the way we hoped.

 

It's a lot longer piece than the excerpts i pulled below, here's the Luka parts. Rest is about the disfunction in the FO, primarily with the handling of the medical side of things. The terrible timing of him letting Smith go. How that played a role in Dirk no longer wanting to work with the organization. Paints Nico as insecure and power hungry.

 

All I could understand is FAT.

 

Where’d you get that pic?

 

Sirron has been slacking so I had to make my own

 

Gets worse -- Tim Cato covers the team and dropped an article today too (behind a paywall, relying on tweets for the heat)





You shouldn't need a warning or heads up about how the fans are going to respond about trading Luka. That's pure and utter failure at the top.

... annnd Nico is holding his exit interview today. Wonder what the media will want to discuss.