NBA 2024-2025 ; Lakers Land Luka

You're not concerned about Lukas fitness when you replace him with AD. Something else is going on.
My theory is that Luka is on heroin.
 
You're not concerned about Lukas fitness when you replace him with AD. Something else is going on.
My theory is that Luka is on heroin.
Anything else would be pure speculation at this point. So I agree with you.
 
This is one of the craziest (not ina good way) trade ever.

What would the football equivalent? Barca selling Messi for 20m in 2009 and buying Rio Ferdinand?
 
Nba is wild man, imagine if you are a huge fan who has for years now basically based everything around Luka and you suddenly wake up to this. I genuinely wouldn't be able to go on watching. I have always hated the trade deadline stuff because team building has gone out of the way now but this is just next level absurd.
 
This is one of the craziest (not ina good way) trade ever.

What would the football equivalent? Barca selling Messi for 20m in 2009 and buying Rio Ferdinand?

Maybe selling Makélélé and replace him with Beckham?
 
Nba is wild man, imagine if you are a huge fan who has for years now basically based everything around Luka and you suddenly wake up to this. I genuinely wouldn't be able to go on watching. I have always hated the trade deadline stuff because team building has gone out of the way now but this is just next level absurd.

Team building hasn't gone out of the way, maybe you mean player development but team building is probably the most crucial aspect of the NBA.
 
Team building hasn't gone out of the way, maybe you mean player development but team building is probably the most crucial aspect of the NBA.
Yeah I mean team building as in drafting players and player development. Its just trade deadlines and getting stats together now.
 
Just woke up and still dont get why you would call only Lakers directly, they would get so much more if they went public with it, they would get defense and offense and picks, there is no way its not some shady shit. Also reports of Luka being overweight, they made it sound like its not fixable, so weird whole thing.

Edit: Also, wtf is Utah first call for everyone and what kind of pay is for them to take part in it.
 
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This. Is. Amazing.

What the feck. Can’t believe this is real :lol:
 
Dallas' move makes sense. I think people agree with the argument that they want to win now so that's why they're doing this but even from a long term perspective it makes sense because Dallas pretty much hedged all their future picks on winning now in the Kyrie trade, followed by PJ and Gafford.

They don't have any first from 2027 to 2030 and, not so coincidentally, Kyrie's contract is till 2026, by which time he'll be 36/37 so we'll past his prime. Even if they keep Luka, they won't have the assets to rebuild, the only hope would be in the free agent market and that's a separate bet because you can never be certain a big name will come to the franchise, they've gone through that heartbreak before. So Dallas I think came to the conclusion that even with Luka they can't win a title in the near future.

For the 'winning now', you can argue they just reached the Finals and became better with the acquisition of Klay and the further development of Lively/Hardy but I think there are a couple of things to consider. They lost defense in Derrick Jones Jr and, more importantly, the West is a lot stronger, especially OKC, is stronger. It's ironic that Dallas have beaten OKC multiple times this season without Luka but even if you consider the series they won last season, Luka really struggled under the defense of Dort and it was the others that stepped up. OKC have only further added to their backcourt defense with Caruso coming, so that would make it more difficult for Luka in that series. AD on the other hand would go against their bigs, which is the weaker part of their defense. Add to that having AD and Lively/Gafford would also match up well against Jokic. The East has also gotten better with the Knicks and Cavs looking like a viable contenders. I think last season Dallas would've beaten any East team other than the Celtics so you could say they were unlucky there.

So yea, Dallas didn't see a viable future so went further into the win now mode.

Lakers lose their chance to win another title this season with LeBron while Dallas lose their franchise player. I think the people happiest at this trade are the teams that have Dallas' future picks because Dallas will definitely go bust when those come around :lol:
 
This doesn’t actually give any concrete examples though. Most of the trades Lakers made in the last few years were not really lopsided.

Exactly. Also since the AD trade the Lakers have had nothing of value to exchange other than subpar role players(not even young ones) and either potentially bad picks or picks that are very far in the future.
 
Dallas' move makes sense. I think people agree with the argument that they want to win now so that's why they're doing this but even from a long term perspective it makes sense because Dallas pretty much hedged all their future picks on winning now in the Kyrie trade, followed by PJ and Gafford.

They don't have any first from 2027 to 2030 and, not so coincidentally, Kyrie's contract is till 2026, by which time he'll be 36/37 so we'll past his prime. Even if they keep Luka, they won't have the assets to rebuild, the only hope would be in the free agent market and that's a separate bet because you can never be certain a big name will come to the franchise, they've gone through that heartbreak before. So Dallas I think came to the conclusion that even with Luka they can't win a title in the near future.

For the 'winning now', you can argue they just reached the Finals and became better with the acquisition of Klay and the further development of Lively/Hardy but I think there are a couple of things to consider. They lost defense in Derrick Jones Jr and, more importantly, the West is a lot stronger, especially OKC, is stronger. It's ironic that Dallas have beaten OKC multiple times this season without Luka but even if you consider the series they won last season, Luka really struggled under the defense of Dort and it was the others that stepped up. OKC have only further added to their backcourt defense with Caruso coming, so that would make it more difficult for Luka in that series. AD on the other hand would go against their bigs, which is the weaker part of their defense. Add to that having AD and Lively/Gafford would also match up well against Jokic. The East has also gotten better with the Knicks and Cavs looking like a viable contenders. I think last season Dallas would've beaten any East team other than the Celtics so you could say they were unlucky there.

So yea, Dallas didn't see a viable future so went further into the win now mode.

Lakers lose their chance to win another title this season with LeBron while Dallas lose their franchise player. I think the people happiest at this trade are the teams that have Dallas' future picks because Dallas will definitely go bust when those come around :lol:
Their chance of winning was better with Luka than it will be with AD. Their team as currently constructed has almost zero chance of repeating last season’s success. They got to the finals mainly because of Luka.
 
Exactly. Also since the AD trade the Lakers have had nothing of value to exchange other than subpar role players(not even young ones) and either potentially bad picks or picks that are very far in the future.
I mean people were talking about them as a possible suitor for Dame when we were trading him and they only had one first round pick to trade at the time. They are often linked with players they have no chance of acquiring with the assets they are willing to / can trade, hence the perception that they are being priced out.
 
i actually think you've got the best take, and you're probably on the money. But then surely there's an argument to be made that you open the door to everyone to get the best picks deal or something? The secrecy of this makes it another level, and i'd say Dallas didn't get anywhere near enough.

You would think the Mavs could get more elsewhere
 
I don't really get that one, neither team got flexibility, at least not by default. Both teams have the current players Bird rights and they will both have supermax slots when both players will be able to extend. Furthermore, Doncic will get a supermax from the Lakers while the Mavs would be crazy to give one to 35* years old AD. The deal is great for the Lakers but it makes no sense for the Mavs.

* If his contract actually ends in 2028, I'm not totally sure.

Lakers can’t pay Doncic as much as the Mavs could, so I’ve read.
 
If am a Lakers fan, I would feel like I've hit a jackpot.. Can they maybe get another big until the deadline? If they can, that is a very good team right now. We all know we want to see fired up Luka in a playoff series against the Mavs now.
 
Lakers can’t pay Doncic as much as the Mavs could, so I’ve read.
Yeah, I forgot that the supermax doesn't follow a traded player after the rookie contract. He is "only" eligible for a max contract and will have to wait for 2028 in order to be able to get up to 35% of the cap.
 
Mahomes being pissed off at this trade makes it a 100 times better.
 
Their chance of winning was better with Luka than it will be with AD. Their team as currently constructed has almost zero chance of repeating last season’s success. They got to the finals mainly because of Luka.

I think it's a question of the ceiling the this roster with Luka versus with AD. You'll lose points with Luka's offense gone but you'll gain them through better defense in AD.

It'll also be interesting what impact it'll have on Klay since his game now is as a catch and shoot player, which will be not difficult without Luka's drive-and-kick plays. Kyrie isn't as good a passer as Luka is so he might not get the same looks.

You think LA had a chance?

Less than what they had before surely.
 
Only way the Mavs win this trade is if they get a ring this year and/or next year, I suppose, but even then… They’d have the same chance with Luka and wouldn’t have given him up for his prime years.
 
This shit would honestly be the ultimate fear if football went down the super league franchise route. Owners completely in charge not giving a feck about fans and doing everything for ulterior motives.

Thank feck we’re not quite there…yet.
 
Maybe selling Makélélé and replace him with Beckham?

Nooo that's completely different.

Luka is a generational talent. It'll be like us selling Ronaldo in 2007 and buying Michael Owen. :lol:

The Mav owners don't want to give him that supermax contract. That's the conclusion I've come to. Penny pinching American sports owners eh?
 
This shit would honestly be the ultimate fear if football went down the super league franchise route. Owners completely in charge not giving a feck about fans and doing everything for ulterior motives.

Thank feck we’re not quite there…yet.

Someone mentioned that the owners want to move the franchise over to Vegas. What better way to do than to alienate a whole city and then claim the franchise has no support and make that move?
 
Nooo that's completely different.

Luka is a generational talent. It'll be like us selling Ronaldo in 2007 and buying Michael Owen. :lol:

The Mav owners don't want to give him that supermax contract. That's the conclusion I've come to. Penny pinching American sports owners eh?

Not really AD he is a genuinely great player, the only issue is his health otherwise we are talking about arguably the best two way player in the league and an easy top 10 overall. The issue is that the deal makes no sense when you consider the age of the players, the Mavs had a 10 years window that is now 2 or 3 max.
 
Only way the Mavs win this trade is if they get a ring this year and/or next year, I suppose, but even then… They’d have the same chance with Luka and wouldn’t have given him up for his prime years.
I feel like Luka the type of player that ranscends rings. I know the whole point of elite sports is winning rings but I've had Dallas fans tell me that they'd rather have Luka his whole career and not win a ring than have AD and win 1 or 2. He's just special and the reason people go to the AAC, to see shit they don't usually see.
 
Someone mentioned that the owners want to move the franchise over to Vegas. What better way to do than to alienate a whole city and then claim the franchise has no support and make that move?
Yeah I’ve read the same. Perfect opportunity for the owners to do that whilst commissioner silver gets a big move to his money making franchise and improve ratings.