Luka Dealt to Lakers: Nico Harrison is a Basketball Terrorist

[ThisIStheYear]

Only two explanations make sense. 1) Dallas ownership must save a ton getting under the luxury tax now and in the future. Ownership must have told Nico no on a Luka SuperMax and that they’re not willing to pay the tax. The best way to describe this new ownership: they’re a private equity firm. 2) The knee has a degenerative condition.

The problem for the Mavs is it seems they don’t have their own pick between 2027-2030, and they are going to bottom out hard. Thus, they probably can’t create a title window for a decade or more. Mavs fans are about to go into the wilderness for 10-20 years.

The Mavs do have one escape scenario. Lose nearly every game the rest of this season, get extremely lucky in the lottery, and snag a franchise player. The team has the coach to make at least that first part happen, but the roster is probably not bad enough yet. I’d trade every player with a market over the next week.

Most likely, the Mavs are just dead in the water with no path for relevance for the foreseeable future. A lot of us old time fans who were young then but remember the founding of the team will also die before the Mavs have a shot at relevance again. That really puts a pall on the term Mavs Fan For Life. If we see that moniker through, we really will be dead before this team can rise again. Sadly, it’s time for MFFLs to move on. Nico and this ownership have fucked us by mortgaging the team’s future completely and then doing this.

[Smitty]

WHAT THE F@$K?!?

I feel like I woke up to an alternate reality. It doesn’t feel real. I don’t know that I have the spirit to root for a franchise that went from Luka as the face to Kyrie/Davis. Maybe if it were 2015 I’d feel different.

Wow!

[MAVS-SLO]

I can't believe.. I thought it was a joke or fake twitter profile and Slovenian reporters just copy-paste it...

Still i don't know why but this trade really smells.. I mean something has to be behind the doors and we don't know.

Just looking on the Luka's era in Dallas. The whole time FO was trying to build a team around Luka nad after he finally got a team they traded him immidiatly? I mean, they didn't even start bidding war.

Last year we go to finals, fantastic chemistry with Kyrie and then all additions during the summer. Marko Milic got an role of assistant in Dallas few months ago, Sean Sweeney become assistant in Slovenian NT.. And then Luka is trade like a salary filler for AD?

Nico maded very logical moves until this disaster and now he talks about health? But AD is more injury than KP and 7 years older than Luka..

Yes, Luka conditioning is a problem, but this isn't something new. And again, they traded him right away as a salary filler and they didn't even start bidding war.

Dirk didn't know, Luka didn't know , AD didn't know, Lebron didn't know.. Something is strange here...

I really don't know how the FO will describe this.. Cause this team wasn't builded for AD... And we are getting back to have only 1 creator on the court.. And it looks like neither AD and Luka aren't happy with the trade..

Reading currently Dallas lost 700k followers on IG in 4 hours.. Interesting..

Looks really bad for Dallas now.. Not good enough for a championship, but good enough for a playoffs and without draft capital... Trade which would make only those who aren't watching bbl... And i'm pretty sure Nico watches, but something has to be behind this...

Can't believe what is happening right now with this, but something has to be behind this.

[bubbler86]

May have already been said, but the salary cap played a role in this re: cannot deal Luka for just first-round picks since they are above the first apron (I think).

[SleepingHero]

May have already been said, but the salary cap played a role in this re: cannot deal Luka for just first-round picks since they are above the first apron (I think).

You can always trade a player for no salary as long as the accepting team has the space. 

I am sure the Mavs could’ve gone to the Jazz or Spurs and extracted any and every player they wanted out of them AND all their picks.


But Nico Harrison is a member of Al-Qaeda and hates Texas.

[surfpuckmd]

I'm giving up my Mavs card as well.

The NBA suddenly became a little dark and depressing to me. 

I learned a lot about basketball from all of you.  Be well.

[MAVS-SLO]

May have already been said, but the salary cap played a role in this re: cannot deal Luka for just first-round picks since they are above the first apron (I think).

I know.. But can't you get at least few young players and a draft capital for Luka?

I mean, you are already without future draft capital and you are trading your most valuable player for 32 years injury prone AD and 1 FRP?

Who would do that?

I'm curius to see teams reaction on this.. Wouldn't be surprised if Kyrie opts-out and AD don't look pretty happy about the trade here...

[bubbler86]

You can always trade a player for no salary as long as the accepting team has the space. 

I am sure the Mavs could’ve gone to the Jazz or Spurs and extracted any and every player they wanted out of them AND all their picks.


But Nico Harrison is a member of Al-Qaeda and hates Texas.

I am reading they had to take back salary.  Not a cap expert but being stated they could not trade him for just picks.   Still a terrible trade either way.

[Mavs2021]

I one day aspire to have Pelinka´s level of confidence to ask the Mavs to contribute a fucking 2nd round pick to the Utah deal. Imagine the balls to do that, if this was really a good faith trade.

[bubbler86]

Lively hurt but we now have 3 of the best centers in the league.

[hakeemfaan]

The bottom line is they gave up a generational guy without talking to other teams to even evaluate what type of loot they could get. If they had called other teams we would have heard by now.

A generational alpha guy who was 25. For all his warts he is not Harden or Westbrook who also used to have great stats. Westbrook could never shoot. Harden struggled when refs refused to give him his baited calls.

To want to trade him I can even somewhat understand. However to trade him for what they got back was criminal. I know AD is still a top tier player but he is 32 and more hurt than Luka. Plus he has never been an alpha anywhere . He is the type of player we should trade for Lively and picks at this stage. Not Luka.

[BigDirk41]

Lively hurt but we now have 3 of the best centers in the league.

We could have 5 of the best centers in the league and it still doesn't make us better than having Luka. This trade sucks. I hope the fans boycott this terrible organization.

[Chicagojk]

So defense wins championships but our starting backcourt is Dinwiddie and Irving. Can’t make this up

[Jmaciscool]

So defense wins championships but our starting backcourt is Dinwiddie and Irving.  Can’t make this up

Don't forget that Mavs were worried about Luka's availability so traded for AD. Can't make this up

[WildArkieBoy]

When the Mavs inked Harrison Barnes and a couple others to contracts, part of the rationale was "this demonstrates to NBA stars how the Mavs treat and take care of their players."  That may not be a strong Mavs selling point going forward.

As to Luka's conditioning, that's always been a concern of mine and others.  I'd always hoped that Cuban, when he was majority owner, would have assigned a fulltime nutritionist/trainer to Luka year round, but maybe that was tried and rejected.

Just one more thing:  Could someone please explain why the trade had to be done so covertly for such a minimal return?  It's not like anyone's feelings were spared as the trade details came out anyway. Is there any justification for not getting a better haul for a perrennial superstar?  How is that effective asset management?

wab

[Jym]

Still feels like a family member died or something. This doesn't just change how I feel about Mavs in the short term.
It fundamentally rocks the entire foundation of my life-long love for sports

deleted the ESPN app, turned off sports related twitter notifications

[Chicagojk]

https://bsky.app/profile/mikevorkunov.bs...7dkpdhok25

[SleepingHero]

Still feels like a family member died or something. 
It fundamentally rocks the entire foundation of my life-long love for sports

Summed it up well. My outlook on sports as a whole changed when I woke up this morning.


Hard to actually root for something when you trade a player of Luka’s caliber for such minimal stuff and done in the middle of the night and then trash him on the way out. 

Genuinely fuck Nico Harrison and any person who was involved in this. 

Plus Klay literally came because of Luka and scorned the Lakers. I can’t imagine he’s happy this morning either

[SleepingHero]

https://bsky.app/profile/mikevorkunov.bs...7dkpdhok25

I think Nico Harrison is in for a rude awakening because this anger from the fan base isn’t going away. He literally just killed his career in a single move. 

Collusion at its best.

[BolsDamols]

Playoffs is where I will really miss Luka. The thrill and joy I got from watching the way that he destroyed the Suns in Game 7 or the Wolves in Game 5 is a feeling I probably will not experience again. The feeling that we have the best player in any playoff series, that is gone now. Im done from being a Mavs fan, will probably still check on Luka once in a while, but never in the same way again.

Fans should boycott. I am canceling my League Pass. What is the fucking point anyway.