Will Mavs-Lakers Doncic trade enter the NBA Trade Hall of Shame?
Dallas fans are gutted as they watch their franchise hero sent away in a trade even NBA 2K wouldn’t accept.
Gold-blooded rant incoming! Luka Doncic is a Los Angeles Laker, Anthony Davis is a Dallas Maverick, and the internet basketball community is in stunned shambles.
This middle of the night transaction defied logical convention: Luka was the fresh-faced chubby superstar who had just led his team to the NBA Finals with a smile, a wink, and complete domination on the court. Davis was the Lakers’ staple big man, the hall-of-fame bound power forward who can score from anywhere, and was the perfect defensive complement to the aging LeBron James with his size and length. Heck, they won a (bubble) championship together!
Step 1: Draft generational talent
— Denver (@doubledworth) February 2, 2025
Step 2: Get it out the mud
Step 3: Make conference finals
Step 4: Make more trades to build contender
Step 5: Make finals
Step 6: Retool further
Step 7: Trade franchise player midseason
Step 8: ???????????????????
There is no logic to Luka Dončić being traded to the Lakers for Anthony Davis and I lost my damn mind, because there is ABSOLUTELY no world where this makes sense...
— Kevin Gray Jr. (@KevinGraySports) February 2, 2025
Shoutout to my @DLLS_Mavs for allowing me to go OFF! pic.twitter.com/p8qNVCb3lt
There’s a sense of palpable rage from Mavs fans. People who I talk to once a year or less are blowing up my phone. Nico has done something to this fanbase and franchise that’s unforgivable. I hope he’s gone from the Mavs soon.
— Kirk Henderson (@KirkSeriousFace) February 2, 2025
Look, as someone who’s watched the Warriors turn other teams’ desperation into dynasty fuel, I’ve developed a refined palate for terrible trades. But some deals are so brutal they make the James Wiseman experience look like a masterclass in asset management. Let’s dive into five transactions that had fan bases considering class action lawsuits against their own front offices.
The 2004 Vince Carter trade from Toronto to New Jersey stands as perhaps the most tragic example of selling a Picasso at a garage sale price. The Raptors, dealing with Carter’s increasingly vocal desire to leave (who can forget him swearing off dunking?), panicked harder than a rookie in Game 7 and accepted Alonzo Mourning (who never reported), Eric Williams, Aaron Williams, and two first-round picks that turned into Joey Graham and... (does it even matter?). Carter immediately remembered how to play basketball in New Jersey, averaging 27.5 points per game while showing more bounce than a kangaroo who discovered energy drinks. The basketball gods wouldn’t smile on Toronto again until Masai Ujiri arrived to perform an organizational exorcism.
Speaking of the Nets, their move to Brooklyn brought about a 2013 masterclass in mortgaging the future that still stands as the gold standard of front office malpractice. Sending three first-round picks and a pick swap to Boston for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce was a wild all-in move for legends that were definitely in the twilight of their careers. The Celtics turned those picks into Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, effectively using Brooklyn’s desperation to build their next dynasty. The Nets got 16 months of basketball that ended without sniffing a championship.
Ooo, another doozy! We have the James Harden trade from Oklahoma City to Houston in 2012 – a move that should have Thunder executives filing for emotional damages. Trading a future MVP and the man who turned the stepback into performance art for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, and draft picks that became Steven Adams and spare parts is like swapping an iPhone 15 for three Nokia 3310s because you’re worried about your data plan costs. The Thunder’s ownership wanted to save money on luxury tax payments, and it only cost them roughly checks notes seven scoring titles and a potential dynasty.
Can’t forget that the 2019 Kawhi Leonard trade package, which forced the Clippers to mortgage their future like a tech startup burning through their Series A funding, deserves its own 30 for 30. The price for getting Kawhi? Just Paul George from OKC, which cost them Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, five first-round picks, and two pick swaps. SGA has since transformed into a scoring savant who makes getting buckets look extremely easy. Meanwhile, the Clippers’ title window has been more unpredictable than crypto prices.
These trades serve as eternal reminders that even professional NBA executives can sometimes don’t know what they are doing. The only difference is their mistakes end up as career-defining lowlights while ours just result in angry tweets about NBA 2K’s trade logic being “too realistic.”
Even 2k finds this trade laughable pic.twitter.com/v4jNbbniWM
— Dullah (@imDullah) February 2, 2025