Adam Loewy and Chris Krotovil are morons. That chain of facts is so unbelievably nonsensical I'm shocked that anyone has given it any sort of credibility.

If you watched the press conference, and read the tea leaves it's clear this is a case of a narcissist GM being wholly locked-in on one goal, combined with an ownership group that doesn't have anyone "in the room" to challenge the GM's judgment. Also, people don't seem to realize that the fact Nico comes from a corporate background more than a sports background probably says a lot about why this decision got made.

He seems like an account director or business development guy through and through.

M.C. Swag said:

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CoachRTM said:

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Dallas fans will say things to cope, but there is no way to spin that this doesn't gut the franchise.

If you started all over and made every team draft, Luka is anywhere from the 2nd-4th pick regardless of what fast food he eats. He's literally the guy you build the next decade+ of your franchise around.

He's also the only reason why free agents were interested in going to Dallas - because he can make you a championship contender by himself if you have any sort of supporting cast.

To only get back an aging Anthony Davis (who is a good player but not the superstar that will win you a championship) and a fairly useless 2029 pick……. that's just pitiful.

The Mavs had a title window the next 10 years that just disappeared overnight. Now the Lakers have the perfect setup going into the post-Lebron era.

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Who in Dallas is coping? There's active protests at the AAC and a literal shrine to Luka.

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Where you been man? Hope all is well, other than what went down over the past couple of days.

Mav's social media posting Luka tribute reels is amazing tone-deaf.

I think there are multiple basketball-related reasons that tie together why this happened:

1) Harrison and Pelinka go back 20ish years to when Kobe changed agents, left Adidas and signed with Nike. These two helped secure that deal for Kobe. They are tight. He knew he could trust Rob to keep it quiet if he went searching for a piece he thought could get the Mavs over the top.

2) I know it might sound crazy to Mav fans but Harrison really thinks AD is the missing link to winning right now. AD is getting dragged like hell right but the SOB is as good as anyone this side of Joker when healthy. He completely changes the game on the defensive end when he is dialed in. His injuries are the only reason he's not a multiple time defensive MVP by now. This is getting lost in conversation. And yes, I know the key is him staying healthy. He'd actually been very healthy the last two years until last week. This trade conversation definitely started before his latest injury happened. The fact that he got hurt recently definitely takes some shine off.

3) There has to be some love lost between Luka and multiple others in the Dallas organization. I don't know enough about the Mavs but you don't ship this guy out if everything is peachy keen. There's more to the story here somewhere.

Scientific said:

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I've hated the Lakers so much, as a kid I didn't even appreciate Kobe lol. I don't think the NBA is always looking out for L.A., because if that's the case, they'd much rather have a great Knicks team.

But this has LeBron written all over to me. That's the consistent factor, LeGM.

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As Jason Whitlock said on his podcast today, the premier East Coast team is Boston, not NY.

JDCAG (NOT Colin) said:

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Ol Jock 99 said:

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Quote:

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the fact Nico comes from a corporate background more than a sports background probably says a lot about why this decision got made

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You don't sell your biggest asset for cheap in the corporate world. You might sell it, but you darn well better get market value or better.

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That's the frustrating part.

I don't think you should get rid of Luka, but ok - let's say you've decided you have to.

How do you not shop him around and make it a known option?

This is like having an insanely rare classic car, deciding you're done dealing with upkeep, and just trading it to your neighbor Craig for his 5 year old Honda Accord

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AD is more like a 120k mile C5 Corvette