It’s been a month since the Los Angeles Lakers traded Anthony Davis to the Dallas Mavericks for Luka Doncic, and many people are still trying to process it.
Everything has gone right for the Lakers since as they have won seven straight games and Doncic is fitting in perfectly.
Unfortunately for Dallas, things haven’t quite gone as well. After receiving a ton of backlash for trading Doncic in what they called a win-now move, the Mavericks have seen both Davis and Kyrie Irving get hurt, essentially derailing their season.
A trade of this nature backfiring for the Mavericks is not surprising as superstars like Doncic don’t get traded at his age without asking out. To make matters worse for Dallas, they did not shop him and kept trade talks with the Lakers quiet.
That was important to Lakers owner Jeanie Buss, who spoke to that and why she thinks the trade was a positive for everyone involved, including Davis, via A Martinez and Phil Harrell of Texas Public Radio:
“You know, I learned from my dad — and I point to when the Lakers traded for Pau Gasol — people hadn’t heard about it. Gregg Popovich in San Antonio and Mark Cuban in Dallas threw a fit that we ended up with Pau. They never got a chance to bid on him or probably talk Memphis out of trading him to us.
“You realize in our business that a lot of the rumors are planted by people in the industry who are trying to curry favor with the media. There’s kind of this ‘write good things about me as general manager and I’ll feed you my inside information. Then we both win.’
“In this particular case, I felt that if anybody heard about the trade through a rumor that there would be many parties trying to undermine it. When Pau Gasol came from Memphis to L.A., we won two championships because of it.
“And then there was the famous Chris Paul trade that was vetoed by the commissioner, that people feel somehow the Lakers have an unfair advantage. But that is not true.
“We gave up a lot to get Luka Doncic. We’re happy we have him. We have lost the last three years in a row to the Denver Nuggets in the playoffs, and we really didn’t have anything that was going to look different going into the playoffs again. Anthony Davis was complaining about where he was being played and he wasn’t happy. So I think this was a positive for both teams. They got what they were looking for; we got what we were looking for. And I didn’t realize it was going to be international news like it was, but that’s the power of the Laker brand and its ability to draw big names who want to write their own chapter in Lakers history.”
What Buss is referring to when it comes to Davis was his known desire to play power forward alongside another center on the Lakers. Davis publicly stated as such before the trade and even though he is not getting to do it in L.A., he should get that opportunity with the Mavericks when he and their other centers get healthy.
Regardless though, Davis will forever be a Lakers legend so it feels unnecessary to send a shot his way now that he is playing for another organization.
Luka Doncic reportedly expected to remain with Lakers long-term
According to recent reports, Luka Doncic has enjoyed his time with the Lakers so far and is planning to stay in L.A. long term. Considering how well things have worked, it looks like Doncic and the Lakers are headed for a partnership that could last a decade or longer.
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