Mavs were projected to lose more than $100 million before Luka Doncic trade
Jarred Vanderbilt on the difference in the Lakers’ energy this spring compared to the last couple years after also making midseason roster adjustments: “I mean, we added Luka Doncic this time …” pic.x.com/MYa44lLj1p – 10:14 PM
Mike Curtis @MikeACurtis2
Couldn’t fit everything into my story so I’m going to share a few quotes from the roundtable discussion.
Harrison on how much of Kyrie Irving’s ascension since he arrived in Dallas was part of the reasoning that the Mavs could let go of Luka Doncic, along with the importance of – 9:21 PM
Donatas Urbonas @Urbodo
Nadir Hifi, the EuroLeague Rising Star award winner, is the first U22 player since Luka Doncic to average 14.7 points per game.
No other player under 22 has hit that mark in the round-robin era, which began in the 2016–17 season.
📊 @DariusGaruolis – 2:21 PM
Sam Quinn @SamQuinnCBS
Has any trade in the history sports been compared to both the Babe Ruth trade and the Monta Ellis trade?
Not even from team employees (as is the case with the Luka trade), but, like, from any two human beings ever?
This is some “1,000 monkeys at 1,000 typewriters” nonsense. – 2:03 PM
Tim MacMahon on Nico Harrison addressing Luka Doncic trade to Lakers: Nico Harrison doubled down, he tripled down, he quadrupled down… I could go on, I ran out of fingers counting how many times that he said defense wins championships. So he’s sticking with that. Now, the Mavericks last year had the top defense in the league for the final 20 games, even in the finals against the Celtics, 109.2 defensive rating. That would have ranked second in the league last regular season. They lost that series for other reasons but that logic maybe doesn’t necessarily add up. Neither does this: The Mavericks owe their first round draft capital for deals they made to successfully build around Luca in ’27, ’28, ’29 and ’30, either outright or swaps. Nico Harrison created what he calls a three-to-four year time frame to be a championship contender, obviously year one ruined by injuries. I pushed back on the logic of that. He just kept going back to the defense wins championships mantra. Quite frankly, a lot doesn’t make sense but Nico made it clear he does plan to be the general manager of the Mavericks for the rest of his contract, which has three years left. -via YouTube / April 16, 2025
