Luka Dealt to Lakers: Nico Harrison is a Basketball Terrorist

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

Kidd has been telling Luka for years to stop complaining to the refs. He still complains.

Mavs have been telling Luka for years to take his conditioning seriously. He still gets 20lbs overweight DURING the season. Even more in the offseason. Notorious for smoking and drinking.

Rest of the team preparing for the season. Luka is in Slovenia on vacation. Rest of the team on the road. Luka is with his group instead of being with the team.

Now he's started to get injuries. I believe this is his 4th calf injury on the same leg in the last three years.

He's so good that I understand not wanting to give up on him, but I can also see why the Mavs were getting tired of his shit. You don't just wake up one day and decide to trade Luka Doncic.

[Jym]

Kidd has been telling Luka for years to stop complaining to the refs.  He still complains.

Mavs have been telling Luka for years to take his conditioning seriously.  He still gets 20lbs overweight DURING the season.  Even more in the offseason.  Notorious for smoking and drinking.

Rest of the team preparing for the season.  Luka is in Slovenia on vacation.  Rest of the team on the road.  Luka is with his group instead of being with the team.

Now he's started to get injuries.  I believe this is his 4th calf injury on the same leg in the last three years.

He's so good that I understand not wanting to give up on him, but I can also see why the Mavs were getting tired of his shit.  You don't just wake up one day and decide to trade Luka Doncic.

Oh trading him is perfectly reasonable 
but you make it a massive league-wide bidding war

edit
ok maybe "perfectly reasonable" is an overstatement

[donzingis38]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UijC5Nm3t...ture=share

He just arrived in LA..

[BigDirk41]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UijC5Nm3t...ture=share

He just arrived in LA..

He doesn't look happy to me.

[Jym]

[F Gump]

Kidd has been telling Luka for years to stop complaining to the refs.  He still complains.

Mavs have been telling Luka for years to take his conditioning seriously.  He still gets 20lbs overweight DURING the season.  Even more in the offseason.  Notorious for smoking and drinking.

Rest of the team preparing for the season.  Luka is in Slovenia on vacation.  Rest of the team on the road.  Luka is with his group instead of being with the team.

Now he's started to get injuries.  I believe this is his 4th calf injury on the same leg in the last three years.

He's so good that I understand not wanting to give up on him, but I can also see why the Mavs were getting tired of his shit.  You don't just wake up one day and decide to trade Luka Doncic.

Thank you for this. It expresses my feelings so well.

I loved Luka's show, his flair, and his upside. 

But over time, for me his act had worn real thin. It was getting increasingly more difficult to enjoy his brilliance amid the non-stop whining, the ball dominance, way-too-many pull-up 3s (sometimes so very early in the shot clock), and the too-often "playing my way back into shape" during the regular season where results matter.

For me, seeing Luka ball was only a means to an end -  after the novelty of it wore off, I didn't find the lack of ball movement and the same high PNR being run repeatedly to be all that fun to watch. But if it was the best way to a win, so be it. So if they can win as much (or more) with more of a team concept, I'll like it more, frankly, and I won't miss hero ball. If they can't win without him, then it'll be a different story.

The negotiating will still suck, however, even if they came out better as a team. That process was horrendous, and it's 100% on Nico who chose to do it that bizarre way, thinking he had it figured out. Um no.

[hakeemfaan]

Alright.

We’ve heard plenty of speculation about how one-sided the trade was in LA’s favor, and how stupid Nico was to do it.

How about some speculation on the other side?

What if Nico was the genius? What if he foresaw a quick decline in Luka, and his career is likely to follow Zion’s? Maybe AD actually has MORE productive career left than Luka?

What if the 2029 FRP will end up as top-10? Or top-5?

What if the Mavs win a championship THIS YEAR?

Will any GM ever be willing to trade with us again?

This was addressed by quite a few.  The Mavs are not a better team yesterday , today or in the immediate near future with AD over Luka. However even if by some fluke they win a title the next two years and Luka is out of the league after 3, this is still not a good trade.  It’s because the players winning will feel like rent a year players.  There is no connection with them at all. Even Kyrie and PJ. Luka was the glue that would give the fans that overall connect.  Imagine Mavs had won in 2011 but JeT and Dirk were missing and we had Bosh and Chalmers.  It would almost feel like you are cheering for another team.  Emotional connect takes a few years or some home grown young stud to step up and carry the team as the main cog.  This team has no young assets as part of this deal who can be that guy and our future was not addressed either. 

The main issue again as Garrett used to say: Process, Process, Process.  As a GM you open the bidding to all unless a SA had offered a Wemby or Bucks offered Giannis. Those deals you just take it and run. AD is not that type of player where you just say Yes. Not a 32 year old AD.As mentioned he is not even better than Luka right now. Nico can feel Luka might be done in 3 years.  As of now he is still one of the top 5 in the league and other GMs would give offers for that type of player.  So what Nico feels is irrelevant. For whatever reason. laziness.incompetence or collusion. a proper process was not followed. This is a historical type trade as Lowe mentioned. It just boggles the mind as to how trivially Nico went about it while punching an entire franchise base in their gut.

[hakeemfaan]

I am looking at the Spurs deal. Get picks and some matching salaries and Castle. Send Luka there. Then take those picks and do the same deal SA did to get Fox in here. Castle and Fox at least gives the fans something to be excited about. I am sorry. AD is a solid player. However he is a 2 year rental and he has his own injury and motivational issues.

This current trade looks like Nico did a favor to curry up to Pelinka to set himself up for the future.

[BolsDamols]

He does not look 270 lbs to me

[Jym]

What stuck out to me the most from the Bill Simmons pod was when Bill mentioned that this is the first time a Top 30 all-time player was blindsided by a trade.
All the others forced their way out in some way

[BolsDamols]

Fucking Rob Pelinka next to Luka is just sickening. Disgusting that Nico got bamboozled by this fool. Probably laughing at the entire Mavs franchise.

[RGP1981]

Just saw this on Reddit. Is this real life? Lol.

"In 2013, a Nike VP botched a presentation with Steph Curry by calling him "Seth" and showing him a PowerPoint meant for Kevin Durant. Steph would go on to sign with Under Armor. That Nike VP was Nico Harrison."

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1i...tion_with/

https://www.si.com/fannation/sneakers/ne...phen-curry

[Jakeospikez]

Really doubt Nico had much to do with this even though he's gonna be the scapegoat. This had to have come from higher ups, probably adam silver level forcing a superstar to be the next face of the league post Lebron type shit. They always force feed superstars into LA. No other explanation for this lopsided trade that no one understands at all. No shot any GM just has a one on one with the Lakers and does this trash deal without talking to any other team at all. Ratings, new tv deals with streaming services next season etc, whatever something like that.

[Jym]

Really doubt Nico had much to do with this even though he's gonna be the scapegoat. This had to have come from higher ups, probably adam silver level forcing a superstar to be the next face of the league post Lebron type shit. They always force feed superstars into LA. No other explanation for this lopsided trade that no one understands at all. No shot any GM just has a one on one with the Lakers and does this trash deal without talking to any other team at all. Ratings, new tv deals with streaming services next season etc, whatever something like that.

You gotta watch that press conference from earlier if you haven't yet
Makes it pretty clear that Nico had enough of a burning hatred for Luka to do this and a new owner who is so disconnected from the fanbase they found the idea luls worthy

[SleepingHero]

So how long does Nico have left before he’s fired into oblivion? How do we measure success after he literally blew up a finals level team mid season because he liked AD more than Luka ?

[khaled1987]

So how long does Nico have left before he’s fired into oblivion? How do we measure success after he literally blew up a finals level team mid season because he liked AD more than Luka ?

He will stay until 2026 at least.
This is his project now, you don't fire him without a chance.
But it will be interesting discussion about whom we should get to replace him, and probably Kidd too while he pays for Nico's mistake.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

He doesn't look happy to me.

He's flashing the LA sign, so I don't know.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

So how long does Nico have left before he’s fired into oblivion? How do we measure success after he literally blew up a finals level team mid season because he liked AD more than Luka ?

He has to win a chip within the next 3 yrs. Just making the playoffs, won't cut it. I will say one thing about Nico, he has a lot of guts.

[SleepingHero]

He will stay until 2026 at least.
This is his project now, you don't fire him without a chance.
But it will be interesting discussion about whom we should get to replace him, and probably Kidd too while he pays for Nico's mistake.

Right but how do we measure the team? What’s the bar for success? We know this team was at least a finals level team given Luka and Kyrie did it last year and we only improved. 

Is AD+Kyrie the same level of duo? How can we say “hey we moved on from Luka, but look we did this!”

Is it championship or bust? That’s the only thing in my mind that can somewhat soothe this ache. Even still any ring sans Luka will be hollow.

[Chicagojk]

This is self serving and not really important for anyone else, but I have made the decision to step away. I am sure I will continue to lurk here. Maybe I will post eventually, maybe I won't. Maybe I will watch some games, maybe I won't. Waking up to this bombshell on Sunday morning rocked me to the core. So, right now the Mavs don't deserve my attention.

The only way this works for Nico is if they win a championship. I don't think they are close now. I think at least 10 teams have a better chance. In the next few years, more teams will pass them. Nico said flat out his view of the future is 3-4 years. When reality sets in that they don't have a championship team, I shake thinking what type of panic trades they make to just have a chance.

At the end of the day though, right now I feel even if Nico found the right mix and they are a top 5 contender, I don't think I will care. I have nothing built up with them. I felt no pain. Didn't watch the growth. Didn't see them climb mountains. They are hired guns. I know that doesn't often work in the NBA, and it is not something I want to invest in regardless.

Maybe I will come back, maybe not. If not, I wanted to thank everyone for your common fandom and your time. I believed in my opinions, even if I was wrong quite a bit. I liked reading the banter of different thinking, even if I may not have engaged in it. It was a fun place to throw crazy thoughts out and spend hours talking about things my "real life" friends/family had no idea what I was talking about. It was fun. I am bummed. I am rocked. Best of luck everyone. Maybe I will be back!