Luka Dealt to Lakers: Nico Harrison is a Basketball Terrorist

[hakeemfaan]

They are practically screaming this reason to us, it's just that we don't want to hear it. And, btw, I'm not convinced the reason is GOOD, but:

They wanted to be rid of Luka I think, yes, but another reason this happened, and possibly the MAIN reason it happened NOW, is that they really, really wanted AD. Like, Harrison thinks the team will be BETTER with AD than it would've been with Luka. We don't have to agree, but really getting that through our heads goes a long way to explaining some of this stuff. 

If he starts a bidding war and Luka's team get wind of things, we start living in a world where Bill Duffy asks "Where do you want to play, Luka," followed by shopping around with those teams to make sure they'll pay up this summer. That's even assuming they don't put it out there that he'll not sign with anyone in attempt to stall this until Dallas has no choice but to SuperMax him or lose him for nothing. But, even if they accept the premise that he's going to get traded, Luka's team has SIGNIFICANTLY more leverage in that situation once this gets leaked, as does Davis/Rich Paul.

Would the Mavs have ended up with more return that way? Probably, but maybe not, and I bet they wouldn't have gotten a PLAYER anywhere near the level of Davis, which, again, seems to have been the point. There's a rumor (which I'm inclined to believe) that Luka was offered for Giannis and Milwaukee declined, but past Giannis and AD, we don't even know for sure that Harrison would've even gone through with this trade at all. And, if keeping Luka is even among the possibilities being considered, do you really want to openly shop him? 

In other words, for a variety of reasons, keeping it secret meant keeping it secret from Luka and his agent. I don't know how many 1sts AD is worth in a vacuum, but I do know that his value cancels out some portion of Luka's. And, getting AD was the point here for the Mavs. Honestly, another pick and maybe a swap added in between and I'm feeling much better by now. 

I'm not saying they handled this well and we just need to get over it, as I'm sure there were ways to improve on how it went down, but I can understand now, a week later, why an auction wasn't staged. 

And, while it's annoying to feel they could've gotten more for Luka and didn't push hard enough for it...if Luka is who we think he could be when the dust clears on all of this, this trade will seem ridiculous no matter what was traded for him. If he flames out, Harrison will probably look pretty smart in hindsight for snagging a talent like AD with which to move forward, albeit through a much shorter window.

This was mentioned somewhere on this thread or somewhere else on another thread and this is DUMB no matter how many times it is thrown out . There is no other way to say it and as the other poster said it is super annoying for any Mavs fan to even give them a pass on this.  This is a loser mentality of thinking which is why other teams always seem to trade away assets and make out like bandits while the Mavs don’t. 

If the worst case came to pass and they ended up with nothing I would take that chance over what they got. What they got doesn’t move the needle for the team either short term or long term.  

Why just glibly believe them that they would have paid the supermax to Luka if he was fit as a fiddle. I don’t know enough about this ownership to give them a pass on anything. The owner’s and GM’s lack of maturity is also on display post the trade.  An incoming player showing more maturity and class than either of them is all one needs to know.