I don't remember seeing anything about Luka avoiding Sacramento, either. Even in the moment, those teams were extremely foolish to pass up an obvious home run player.
Giannis is leaving. Even if he's not, I would trade him for a better player who is five years younger.
I understand wanting to give the Mavs the benefit of the doubt, but there's no benefit of the doubt to be had. This is trading Joe Burrow for Geno Smith. Sure, Geno Smith is good, but he's not Joe Burrow. It seems like the front office had an axe to grind because Luka came in overweight again. They let that get in the way of keeping a generational star.
Whatever excuse you give, they still traded a player who has a chance to be one of the best in NBA history for a player exiting his prime. It's moronic. Was ownership involved? Probably. Whatever the case, the Mavericks, as an organization, just made one of the worst decisions in American professional sports.
We'll see what happens with his injury record going forward. The difference between Luka and Stoudemire or Thomas is Luka is the ideal size for an NBA player. He isn't tall enough to worry about leg injuries or small enough to worry about relying on athleticism to play effectively.
The Mavs aren't exactly trading for a player with great availability, either. Games played by regular season, dating back to when Luka's career started:
2018-19
Luka: 72
Davis: 56
2019-20
Luka: 61
Davis: 62
2020-21
Luka: 66
Davis: 36
2021-22
Luka: 65
Davis: 40
2022-23
Luka: 66
Davis: 56
2023-24
Luka: 70
Davis: 76
2024-25
Luka: 22
Davis: 42
Maybe Luka's body breaks down, but he's hyper-competitive. I'm guessing he loses weight and gets even better. Davis turns 32 next month. He's fighting Father Time.
I don't think LaVine is an upgrade on Fox. He and DeMar DeRozan played together in Chicago two years ago, and the result was a 40-42 basketball team.
This story is too juicy to stay quiet, but who knows, maybe they kept the security tight and Polenka and Harrison only talked to each other, Anthony Davis since he had already agreed to waive his 15% no-trade bonus requiring the team to inform him in advance of any trade, and LeBron because they had no choice since he and Davis both are represented by Rich Paul and there's no way they could trade Davis without Paul and LeBron knowing. If they really did limit the talks and reasoning to those five people it's likely we'll never know since none of those guys are likely to have incentive to leak the trade reasoning.
I'm now hearing this is wrong--the talks were EXCLUSIVELY between Polenka and Harrison, and Davis was directly contacted by Harrison around an hour before Shams reported it and told that he couldn't consult with Rich Paul and he complied, so LeBron found out with the rest of us. I can see why this was an easy sell for Davis--the Lakers have been treading water for years, Davis hates playing center, and the Mavs have Kyrie who is still as exceptional on the court as ever no matter what we think of his flakiness off the court, and the Mavs have more quality centers than he's ever played with in Gafford and Lively. Davis LOVED playing next to DeMarcus Cousins, so this Mavs team will be similar to that experience.
We're almost certainly never going to know precisely why Luka got traded, but hey, that won't stop everyone from making up their own reasons.
I can tell you from being here in Sacramento for that draft that the reporting here was that Luka told Divac not to draft him, that he would stay in Europe if he did. The speculation was that there was some lingering baltic state friction between them. But everyone knew Doncic should have been the pick at #2 and it was malpractice not to take him. Even if it would have taken the ball out of Fox's hands some you do it anyway. And i doubt Luka would have skipped those NBA paychecks to stay in Europe, not for long. Malpractice.
Like I said, Im a Warriors fan. But I live in Sacramento and my son is a devout Kings fan, so it still stinks.
I can tell you from being here in Sacramento for that draft that the reporting here was that Luka told Divac not to draft him, that he would stay in Europe if he did.
I heard that too before the draft, and I live on the East Coast. It was definitely floating around out there, but I was skeptical at the time and still am because I don't think I ever heard why Luka said it.
I do wish a journalist would do a deeper dive on it because I still want to know if it was true, and if so why. It could just be the same things John Elway and Eli Manning were trying to do when they came out of college in telling the Colts and Chargers not to draft them, but if it was some specific beef with Divac I'd like to know why.
But everyone knew Doncic should have been the pick at #2 and it was malpractice not to take him.
And a minority of wiser pundits and fans knew he should have been #1 above Deandre Ayton, but hey, talented 7-footers are always a siren call that NBA GMs can't help but be sucked in by. 😳
Kareem was the best player in the league when he was traded to the Lakers. Wilt had to be top 3 or so player when he was traded to the Lakers. Those were different times. Teams near bankruptcy making trades for pure cash and financial solvency. Teams weren’t worth billions s back then.
hmm; always the Lakers getting these deals.
I always thought Divac didn’t draft Luka bc if he drafts the Euro player that doesn’t work out then he loses his job. If he drafts the American player that doesn’t work out that’s just part of the game. Dumb thing is he was always going to lose his job.
Adelson scum wants to tank the Mavs to angle a potential move of the team to Vegas to force Tx to legalize casino gambling.
I always thought Divac didn’t draft Luka bc if he drafts the Euro player that doesn’t work out then he loses his job. If he drafts the American player that doesn’t work out that’s just part of the game. Dumb thing is he was always going to lose his job.
I don't think Divac thought that way. This is a team that had its best success with kids from Croatia and Turkey playing alongside him. Sacramento fans were used to having euros on their team playing major roles... I honestly think he was more afraid of having Luka refuse to come and looking weak.
His whole tenure looked insecure and tentative. I guess that's the way it is working for that type of ownership. Like WTF are they doing now?
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