Luka to the Lakers (WTF) + Trade Deadline

Brewers888 said:
I gave up on following the NBA a few years ago. Its all football and trashing the management of my loser teams for me and of course betting which is mostly on football though I'm starting to bet a lot more tennis.
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Between soccer/golf/tennis this is where I'm at. Even when the Snakes are relevant I don't really start watching til Aug/Sept
 
Since I am from Brooklyn if the Nets were ever good I might start paying attention to them and no I didn't care for the teams that had KD, Kyrie, and Harden who are all pretty disgusting to me especially Kyrie.
 
KJ said:
Between soccer/golf/tennis this is where I'm at. Even when the Snakes are relevant I don't really start watching til Aug/Sept
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Baseball is a tough one for me because that was my favorite sport growing up and the team I would most like to see win a championship is the Brewers but with the payroll disparities until there is a cap I can't be too emtionally invested.
 
If even a complete novice like me knows this is a joke of a trade for Dallas how does their GM make a trade this stupid.
 
So this trade is crazy as there are really no future assets coming to DAL.

Something is up.

League maybe forced this one for ratings / investment into the future.

Obviously, Luka isn't a great athlete and I'm guessing he's lazy AF. That and he wasn't going to resign.
 
KJ said:
Pretty sure the whole thing is more about not wanting to commit $345m to him and to be fair, the conditioning and commitment could be much bigger a deal than it's being made right now. He could go to LA and just start banging a Kardashian tomorrow and it will all come together. Guy really does love being famous.
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Yeah there's a lot behind the scenes that we don't know on why they don't want to make him their career franchise guy
 
Yeah gotta be more to this. I think Dallas sees luca lack of commitment to fitness and recent injury frequency and decides they don't want to give him 70m a year for 5 years guaranteed. I get that (if the case). But I dont get the lousy return. Love AD but 7 year age difference. Luca mvp candidate for next decade (if committed to fitness and game). Barring further injury okc or Memphis winning West this year imo. I dont think this moves that needle
 
lvmike32 said:
Yeah gotta be more to this. I think Dallas sees luca lack of commitment to fitness and recent injury frequency and decides they don't want to give him 70m a year for 5 years guaranteed. I get that (if the case). But I dont get the lousy return. Love AD but 7 year age difference. Luca mvp candidate for next decade (if committed to fitness and game). Barring further injury okc or Memphis winning West this year imo. I dont think this moves that needle
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If they didn't want to pay the guy thats fine and somewhat understandable but you've got to get young talent and tons of picks in return.
 
Brewers888 said:
If they didn't want to pay the guy thats fine and somewhat understandable but you've got to get young talent and tons of picks in return.
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After reading around last night I think a lot of teams had the same line of thought. I'm not sure much of anyone was actually willing to give up much for a noncommit that was due a max contract. I do not believe that the Lakers were the one and only line of communication about this, seems there's a lot more that several GMs didn't want to deal with which made it a fast track.

Again, there's way more than just put him on the market and see where it goes involved here I believe.
 
Tha Mav's lose a player who can't stay in shape which is leading to injuries while getting a dominant big man and the Lakers get younger and a franchise player with Bron being on the way out at the end of his career.
 
Loves2kickass said:
Tha Mav's lose a player who can't stay in shape which is leading to injuries while getting a dominant big man and the Lakers get younger and a franchise player with Bron being on the way out at the end of his career.
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Yeah AD still a top 10 guy and will be for the next 3-4 years. Will likely be in better shape than Luka in 5 years, too.
 
B.A.R. said:
Embiid?

He won't be playing fully in May.
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Exactly…and the other 2 I mentioned wouldn’t be available anyway.

I’m not saying I agree with their vision, I’m just saying that if they’re in a “must win now mode”…who better are they getting if they insist on moving Luka right now?
 
Loves2kickass said:
The Mavs are better positioned for a title after that trade. The Lakers are the team that will make another move
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Both likely need to make additional moves. Mavs aren’t winning a title with the roster as currently constructed. And of course neither are the Lakers. But they have LeBron’s replacement at least in the building. Mavs need a wing superstar at some point.
 
scarf31 said:
Again, I get the sentiment, but I’d like to know…

If you think you can win it this year…who is the best superstar you’d put with Kyrie to bring in?

Embiid is the one that came to mind to me. Maybe Ant, maybe Ja.

But isn’t AD the best player right now that you could bring in this year, and I emphasize, right now…to win if you’re declaring going all in?

Long term is a totally different story.
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Even Giannis. There have been some rumblings there for a bit.

This will easily be the worst trade ever in the NBA. It’ll be the one that’s looked back on forever as an example of what not to do.
 
KJ said:
Pretty sure the whole thing is more about not wanting to commit $345m to him and to be fair, the conditioning and commitment could be much bigger a deal than it's being made right now. He could go to LA and just start banging a Kardashian tomorrow and it will all come together. Guy really does love being famous.
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But that doesn’t explain the need to do it as quickly as they did as well as not even shopping him around to get the best offer.

Nobody disputes it’s about the money and his lack of commitment to being in shape…but that isn’t the point.
 
Inspekdah said:
Both likely need to make additional moves. Mavs aren’t winning a title with the roster as currently constructed. And of course neither are the Lakers. But they have LeBron’s replacement at least in the building. Mavs need a wing superstar at some point.
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Both teams not done imo. Lakers need more depth frontcourt and Mavs backcourt. I think Luka will be driven to prove Mavs wrong and that exactly the stimulation that can get him going...
 
Any realistic scenarios where Zach Levine, Patrick Williams or Vucevic could end up in either LA or Dallas? Bulls are open for business, but have also been very cautious on trades in the past.
 
FSU24 said:
Even Giannis. There have been some rumblings there for a bit.

This will easily be the worst trade ever in the NBA. It’ll be the one that’s looked back on forever as an example of what not to do.
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Can’t fight you on that one at all.

My point (and one I do NOT get) is Dallas thinks this should be a win now or else year. The kid is 25!!!

But apparently, that is clearly their mindset to assume he’s not in their future anyway. The whole thing is bizarre.
 
There have been rumors about Luka's fitness, but they just traded for a 31 year old with a much more questionable health record with age.

This is all about $$$$. Either Dallas knew that he didn't want to be there and was pushing for a trade to LA or Dallas didn't want to pay him the super max money

Either way, this is likely about money.

Still, unless Luka was pushing for LA, very curious why they didn't look all over the league
 
Had time to think about it, still don't get it.

Mavs just made one the worst trades in league history or the league wanted some rapid generational interest to quell shitty ratings.
 
Jerkins with another great take.

This dude should be serving fries...

Image
 
divol said:
When you depend on Harden to show up in the playoffs and on Kawhi to stay healthy for the playoffs, you're in trouble (more times than not). When the best player on your roster is named Norman Powell on a pretty monster conference like West this season, you're in trouble (don't get me wrong, I like the dude, but don't see him as a franchise player).
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Lue can actually coach, he has impressed me in recent times.
 
spiderman said:
There have been rumors about Luka's fitness, but they just traded for a 31 year old with a much more questionable health record with age.

This is all about $$$$. Either Dallas knew that he didn't want to be there and was pushing for a trade to LA or Dallas didn't want to pay him the super max money

Either way, this is likely about money.

Still, unless Luka was pushing for LA, very curious why they didn't look all over the league
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Living here in LV, Adlesons have always been cheap unless you're the State of Israel or a Republican presidential candidate. $$ could easily be the reason if they didn't think Luca warranted the $345M extension.
 
KJ said:
Bum knee at 24 is a pretty big red flag. He's not cut from the Kobe/Lebron cloth that just wants to destroy you
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LeBron ain't got that cloth. Kobe, definitely. I think Luka does too... but didn't realize it until last year.. He was willing that team
 
HUNT said:
LeBron ain't got that cloth. Kobe, definitely. I think Luka does too... but didn't realize it until last year.. He was willing that team
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Wow we see things differently on that one

One thing Lebron has is that want to defeat. The only thing I've ever seen out of Luka is the want for bright lights. Nice to see it through a different lens though....not like I enjoy in-game Lebron antics but his prep has always been pretty fierce. Luka.....yeah no.
 
KJ said:
Wow we see things differently on that one

One thing Lebron has is that want to defeat. The only thing I've ever seen out of Luka is the want for bright lights. Nice to see it through a different lens though....not like I enjoy in-game Lebron antics but his prep has always been pretty fierce. Luka.....yeah no.
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Interesting.
 
RBTrojan said:
knee jerk response, huge win for the Lakers. I am stunned Cuban was on board with this…
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Cuban hasn't been involved in BB operations whatsoever, since 2023-24. He was shocked too probably - he once said he would take Luka over his wife. (if forced to choose)

Trade makes perfect since - as owners aren't focused on WINNING TITLES anyway- plus are they cheap - and have no interest in paying LD 350 million Their current focus is building a massive casino (waiting on vote) where Texas Stadium used to be - their LEVERAGE is 'legalize gambling, or we move the team'.

Fat Luka was just an excuse (he was 260+ earlier tho) - but they probably peaked with that current lineup anyway.
 
bookieassassin said:
Cuban hasn't been involved in BB operations whatsoever, since 2023-24. He was shocked too probably - he once said he would take Luka over his wife. (if forced to choose)

Trade makes perfect since - as owners aren't focused on WINNING TITLES anyway- plus are they cheap - and have no interest in paying LD 350 million Their current focus is building a massive casino (waiting on vote) where Texas Stadium used to be - their LEVERAGE is 'legalize gambling, or we move the team'.

Fat Luka was just an excuse (he was 260+ earlier tho) - but they probably peaked with that current lineup anyway.
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Great point about the whole casino thing. I had read about that last year but totally forgot.
 
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