Luka, you are a Los Angeles Laker

Picture this: It's February 1st, I just got done watching the David Benavidez fight, and I open Twitter to see what everyone's saying about the fight and whatnot, only to be absolutely blindsided by shams:

I have never been in so much denial before reading a tweet in my entire life. Like basically everyone, I genuinely thought Shams must have gotten hacked. I was not going to allow myself to get bamboozled right before bed only to wake up and realize that the Lakers still had no future. Alas, not only did Dallas Morning News Reporter Brad Townsend confirm it, but Chris B Haynes and the actual official ESPN account confirmed the rumors as well. It was at this moment that I realized two things:

1. God is good, all the time, always
2. If I was a Dallas sports fan, the last month would make me go into hiding

When I first read the tweet, I was talking to someone who is a massive Dallas sports fan. Not only have they had to witness Brian Schottenheimer and Matt Eberflus become the Cowboys' HC and OC respectively, but they have also just had to witness their franchise player, who technically hasn't hit their prime yet, who just came off a season in which he averaged a league-leading 33.9 points per game, who just finished 3rd in MVP voting, who just led them to their first NBA finals since Dirk, who if you ask most people will likely finish his career Top-15 all-time, get traded because, and I quote: "constant conditioning issues", effectively boiling down to "He weighs too much." Honestly, this tweet expresses the absurdity of this take better than I can:

While the player comparison of PG to AD may be disagreeable, it is hard to craft a comparable scenario because of just how unprecedented and bad the Luka trade is. Not only did he get traded, the Mavericks pursued this trade, not the Lakers. They had this man Rob Pelinka questioning if they were even being serious. I usually avoid definitive statements when talking about sports as you really never know what will happen, but I feel pretty safe in saying this trade is absolutely awful. We aren't talking about a young guy who isn't there or a superstar about to head over the hill or something, we are talking about a proven playoff performer, an absolute basketball savant who is legitimately a once-in-a-lifetime player getting traded, again, before his prime even begins for a 31 soon-to-be 32 year old. For the record, in no way is this Anthony Davis slander. He is 1/2 of the reason I got to witness the team I root for win a title at an age where I was mentally able to appreciate it fully. With that being said, we could be talking about him only playing another 2-3 years at most, and who even knows if those years will be with the Mavericks? There is absolutely no guarantee that AD and Kyrie will want to play together in the long term. I spoke to some folks about this deal and they said it is likely they have 2 years, but I wouldn't even be shocked if it is more like one year. If they actually make the playoffs this year and make a good run, I can see this lasting two years, but if they make the playoffs and get bounced before the conference finals or miss the playoffs entirely I think either Kyrie or AD will be gone by next year's trade deadline.

I don't want to keep beating a dead horse, but genuinely, what is Nico Harrison's goal here? The only way you could justify a move like this is if you feel AD gets you to winning a title right now considering you just traded the player that got you to the finals LAST YEAR. It's not even to say that this Mavericks team is bad, frankly, I think their roster is still better than the Lakers and probably gives a lot of West teams issues, I just don't think that will last for any more than 1, maybe 2 years. He believes that "Defense wins championships," so why not just surround your young superstar with better defensive pieces and contend for the next decade then? Mavericks reportedly didn't want to give Luka the supermax, but were okay with paying Anthony Davis slightly more money than Luka's current contract still? Nothing makes sense about this to me. Are the Mavs to Vegas rumors true and they want Dallas fans to hate them so they feel justified? Is Luka's injury worse than we've been led to believe? Is Rob Pelinka blackmailing Nico Harrison with photos of him at a diddy party? This is one of those things where I wouldn't be surprised if in 10 years time it turns out this man Nico Harrison was being held against his will to make this deal. At this point, anything is plausible man.

Like, just imagine doing something so puzzling at your job that literally everyone around you is going "What?" This man had the entire NBA world thinking Shams was hacked or that we were getting bamboozled. People I knew who saw the tweet said:

And then just kept scrolling.

Alright, one last thing before moving on, I was crying when I saw this tweet:

Now, one thing I need to do is publicly apologize to Rob Pelinka. For the last 2 years, I have wanted the Lakers to get a point guard and a center so that they could run lineups similar to what they did in 2020 where you could move AD to PF and run a big at Center whose entire role was rim-running and rim protection, while having another good ball handler/floor general for those times when Lebron wasn't in the game. When they traded DLo I was generally happy, not cause I dislike DLo, but because unfortunately he is commonly streaky in the playoffs and Austin Reaves seemed like he stepped into his role seamlessly. It still didn't solve the issue of the Lakers not having a center, but I think with this Luka move it makes sense why they didn't go after one. They aren't trying to win another title in this Lebron era, they are planning for the future. I could be off on this, but it makes complete sense. Let's say you ride out Lebron and AD for the 1-2 more years that Lebron will likely play, you still aren't going to beat the Nuggets or the Thunder. Once Lebron retires, you have a 33-34-year-old AD with an upcoming contract decision and no real future after that. With this move, assuming you add a good center to this current roster without giving up too much, who is to say you can't compete in the West right now? You can possibly go on a run with Lebron, and even if you don't, Luka will only be 27. If you can convince Luka to sign an extension, you essentially secured your franchise cornerstone for the next decade. I initially was going to say that Rob Pelinka shouldn't get gassed too much for this deal seeing as it sort of fell in his lap, until I realized he reportedly talked Nico Harrison out of asking for Dalton Knecht and more first round picks for Luka. Honestly, I don't know if that is Rob having maxed out charisma or Nico Harrison having CTE or something, but in either case, thanks for giving me some genuinely good news as a Lakers fan again. Just hearing about this deal was like a cloud being lifted from over my head. I woke up on the 2nd feeling like I was in a Disney movie, the birds were chirping, the sun was beaming through my blinds, and I had actual hope for this team. I don't believe the Hornets host the Lakers again this year, but as soon as that schedule drops next year I am picking up some tickets just for the chance to watch a Luka x Lebron combo with my own 2 eyes.

I have more thoughts on the Lakers' side of things, but honestly, it all depends on how Luka looks when he actually plays for them, so until that point, I am just going to sit back and appreciate the fact I GET TO WATCH LUKA DONCIC ON MY BASKETBALL TEAM.

Thanks for reading friends.