The Los Angeles Lakers shocked the world by acquiring Luka Doncic via trade with the Dallas Mavericks. The Athletic’s Senior National Writer, Sam Amick guides Dave DuFour and Es Baraheni inside the Lakers negotiation process, the Mavericks decision to trade Luka, De’Aaron Fox’s move to San Antonio, and the Kings acquisition of Zach LaVine. Then, the Athletic’s Jovan Buha joins the show to look at the Lakers’ roster, their trade deadline plans, and LeBron James’s fit with Luka.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Es Baraheni, Sam Amick & Jovan BuhaExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson MoodyRead Sam’s story on the trade: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6108360/2025/02/03/luka-doncic-nba-trade-negotiations-lakers-mavericks/Submit your questions to The Athletic NBA Daily mailbag: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5939460/2024/11/25/nba-podcast-mailbag-athletic-daily/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What were the details of the Luka Doncic trade?
immediately after the game in his jersey right well that is not his habit right he typically takes like an hour to talk to the reporters like usual stars do right yes well guys why is he doing that well because it's la and he's got plans and he wants to go have a good time so you know all of which is to say that man i can i can intellectually understand how nico looked at this and said
Man, AD, who I have a relationship with from the past. Rob Palenka, who is my guy from the Kobe days. Rob, lifelong Kobe agent. Nico was Kobe's Nike rep. I mean, I first met Nico in the halls of Staples Center every single night after games waiting for Kobe. That was Kobe's guy. So there's a synergy in that relationship.
Chapter 2: How did the Lakers negotiate the Doncic trade?
So AD, Kyrie, you know, Clay, the rest of that group, whoever they're going to get, they're a good team right now. It's just the idea that like, man, like the whole basketball world was dying to see what the next 15 years look like for Luca. Yeah. And now that's in a different jersey.
You know, I said this on the show yesterday, and I want to run this by you because I think that the biggest thing, like the shock is just this breaks the norms of how NBA front offices have sort of set themselves up, right? It's all about getting the generational star, getting the one guy you can build around, and then every single move you make is to –
increase the floor raise the ceiling and all the things around this one guy and we just saw this team say no right to to a guy who was regarded universally as a top five player after doing it for years like going all in was a title right yeah i mean are we seeing just a sea change here overall in terms of this possibly being a trend yeah where where teams are telling stars no I don't think so.
No. Who else comes to mind? Well, Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler is the.
Carl Anthony Towns getting moved for financial reasons, right? Where it's not just, hey, this guy's under contract. He's a star. We just eat this money. Like now that the financial parts of it are coming into play a little bit. In my opinion, the new CBA is kind of bringing this to head.
Yeah, I mean, you could counter that by saying, like, you look at the De'Aaron Fox situation in Sacramento. Right. My understanding is they were ready to pay him, and it wasn't going to be the supermax because he wasn't going to qualify. Right. But, you know, that still is him choosing to be elsewhere. Right. I get your point. I think there's merit to it for sure. To me, I mean, yes, the idea.
What's the final number on Luka? What do you have waiting for him? It's like 345 or something. It's just massive. And I get that. But by the way, if it goes well with AD, they're going to be giving the same amount of money to AD, who is routinely sidelined by injury.
Folks don't question his conditioning or his work ethic to the degree that they do Luca, but they do question his toughness and things of that nature. So You know, I it feels partly like, yes, finances always play a part, but call it culture or personality. I think personality is a key word here, like Nico, Jason Kidd, Kyrie, Luca. One of those things is not like the other.
Like the last guy is a bit of he's I mean, call him a rebel, call him a lone wolf. It's not that I mean, he seemed to connect with Kyrie. And but this is me. You know, I'm a little torn on this topic. Yeah. The Kyrie component, I think, has not been talked about that much.
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Chapter 3: What does Luka's trade mean for the Mavericks' future?
If you remember, it blew up when AD was in New Orleans. Boston, right? He was going to go to Boston, and they thought they had him. And then AD's dad publicly talked about how he wasn't going to sign in Boston. But that was actually about the city. That was... Really, the way that they treated Isaiah Thomas was what motivated A.D. 's dad to say, we don't want to be there.
But history between Kyrie and A.D. And so as you look at that landscape, you again, I'm just going to keep it surface level here for the most part. But you look at Luca and he's not really part of that fabric. So the Mavericks have, you know, more experience.
more kind of consistency with that fabric right now they just don't have the guy who who it was mvp caliber for the next five years yeah it's it's funny to compare and contrast this to the fox deal which we briefly just touched on because it is a guy who is asking to be on a different team and now is on a different team which is the san antonio spurs that three team deal went down last night and to see that go down the way that it did sam
You see the Kings get the return that they got. Were you at all surprised to see the return that Sacramento got here, whether from a positive perspective or a negative? Up to you. But were you surprised to see what they got in return for De'Aaron Fox?
No, I mean, you know, a little and I'm peeking on my phone so I can have all the pieces in front of me. I mean, a little peek behind the curtain the night before the trade went down. You know, I had hit up some folks about how I was hearing that that Zach might wind up in sack in this deal. Mm hmm. So that, that part of it, you know, ultimately happens.
And I, on that aspect, I will say, you know, in the here and the now, I think Zach's officially become an underrated player, you know, like there's metrics.
I mean, you can look at the metrics and like, and I know a lot of folks don't want to hear that word, but like the analytics and say, there's a discussion to be had that, you know, he's having a better year than De'Aaron and De'Aaron's having a pretty good year.
So the Levine part and the fact that his contract is not nearly as toxic now as it was a couple of years ago because the cap continues to spike. Right. That part I get. The pick return is a little bit deceiving because the, you know, you start with the 2025 first from Charlotte. That's going to be two seconds because it's protected 14. The 2027 Spurs first.
is like literally like, unless you just think De'Aaron's going to forget how to play basketball. That's going to be, that's going to be a late first. You know, the 2031 first is really good, but that just feels like a lifetime away. Yeah.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of De'Aaron Fox's trade to the Spurs?
And the Lakers have recently like JJ is a big fan of playing small ball centerless basketball, and they have looked a lot better with those types of lineups with Dorian Finney Smith and Jared Vanderbilt on the floor. So I do think that there's potentially a scenario where we get to April and the Lakers are kind of starting Jackson Hayes as a placeholder.
Or maybe they get like a smaller, you know, like a day around sharp or kind of still another backup level big who's maybe a little bit better than Jackson. And ultimately, their crunch time lineups are some combination of Vando, DFS, LeBron, Luka, and Austin. And you got four guys who are 6'7 to 6'9, and then Austin out there. And yes, defensively, there's certainly some holes in that lineup.
But with DFS and Vando switching and providing a certain level of versatility defensively, I think you can maybe... just get by as like average defensively and then elite offensively, you know, figuring out the fit with Luka and LeBron. So I think that's kind of the short term path. Longer term, of course. I mean, one, they're looking at a second star for the whatever LeBron retires.
They want to add a second star to put around Luka. It's always been that way. It's always been that way. And look, after this week, it's hard to dispute that it's going to happen, right? The Lakers just stay Lakering. The Lakers exceptionalism is alive and well, and they will probably find that second star based on how NBA history has gone.
I think to your point, it is going to be interesting to see how they build the roster specifically around Luka because I think you could go back to the beginning of the LeBron 80 era and it was, let's put defense and athletes and a bunch of high motor guys around LeBron and 80. And they progressively went away from that build throughout the rest of the LeBron 80 era.
So I do, I wonder like if they ultimately build the ideal Luca team in the next two to three years, Can they sustain it is its own question, and only time will tell with that. But my understanding is they've switched from the LeBron timeline to the Luka timeline, and this is all about Luka moving forward. How can we build the best roster and the most sustainable roster around Luka?
And that's why I think had they not traded AD, maybe you would have seen a more win-now move this week to try and add a supporting role player. I think now it's more about we're not trying to add... like a mid-30s player who doesn't really fit with Luka's timeline. It's like, if we could add a younger center or something like that that fits, let's go do that.
If not, we're going to stand pat and hold those assets till the summer or next season.
Well, before we get you out of here, and I know you're so busy, give me a perfect name, okay, outside of Luka Doncic, which is the most perfect name you could possibly pull for the Lakers to get, but what's a perfect name for them to land here in the next few days?
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Chapter 6: What are the Lakers' plans for the trade deadline?
I went down to the Lakers game and it never ceases to amaze me. as I sit on press row, how my brain kind of looks around and goes, Ooh, we like this place is different. Like the celebrities, the spotlight, the glitz, the glamor, that stuff, uh, for a dude like Luca, who, by the way, every road trip that they would have in LA, this should tell you a lot.
Luca would, it was the only time that he would do his media, uh,
immediately after the game in his jersey right well that is not his habit right he typically takes like an hour to talk to the reporters like usual stars do right yes well guys why is he doing that well because it's la and he's got plans and he wants to go have a good time so you know all of which is to say that man i can i can intellectually understand how nico looked at this and said
Man, AD, who I have a relationship with from the past. Rob Palenka, who is my guy from the Kobe days. Rob, lifelong Kobe agent. Nico was Kobe's Nike rep. I mean, I first met Nico in the halls of Staples Center every single night after games waiting for Kobe. That was Kobe's guy. So there's a synergy in that relationship.
So AD, Kyrie, you know, Clay, the rest of that group, whoever they're going to get, they're a good team right now. It's just the idea that like, man, like the whole basketball world was dying to see what the next 15 years look like for Luca. Yeah. And now that's in a different jersey.
You know, I said this on the show yesterday, and I want to run this by you because I think that the biggest thing, like the shock is just this breaks the norms of how NBA front offices have sort of set themselves up, right? It's all about getting the generational star, getting the one guy you can build around, and then every single move you make is to –
increase the floor raise the ceiling and all the things around this one guy and we just saw this team say no right to to a guy who was regarded universally as a top five player after doing it for years like going all in was a title right yeah i mean are we seeing just a sea change here overall in terms of this possibly being a trend yeah where where teams are telling stars no I don't think so.
No. Who else comes to mind? Well, Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler is the.
Carl Anthony Towns getting moved for financial reasons, right? Where it's not just, hey, this guy's under contract. He's a star. We just eat this money. Like now that the financial parts of it are coming into play a little bit. In my opinion, the new CBA is kind of bringing this to head.
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