2024-25 NBA Thread: ESPN ready to debate if Warriors blowing 3-1 lead to meager Rockets diminishes LeBron’s legacy (25 Viewers)

[jvdesigns2002]

I’m just thinking that if this is the first major trade of the deadline—I can only imagine what other domino’s are going to fall. Last week NBA fans were shocked by the mere thought of De’aron fox getting traded—and instead Luka gets traded out of nowhere. We could be seeing some major names changing teams here in the next few days. The Pelicans might want to go a different direction with how things are looking with Dejounte out. Butler and fox are still out there and available. We could be looking at a trade deadline for the ages.

 

[Instinctive]

Ok so on further thought, with the shock maybe slightly passing, I'm starting to see the vision. We only had the...6th strongest C position in the NBA? 7th?* So obviously a third center who is also hurt all the time instead of an MVP swingman is the move, so we can have the... 5th best one? Maybe Luka's leg also needs to be amputated and that just hasn't leaked yet?


OH WAIT NO THIS IS STILL REMARKABLY DUMB



*Denver, Boston, Cleveland, Milwaukee, San Antonio...maybe LA, maybe Sac, maybe Min. Embiid can't in good faith count at this point.

 

[Instinctive]

Ok other spin: my wife think Luka is so freaking boring to watch because he's slow and always has the ball. So maybe that's a win?

 

[Gr00vus]

The Lakers roster doesn't make much sense right now. They just lost 2 of their 3 best defenders, and they'd be leaning on Jaxson Hayes to play big minutes at the 5. What they have left will be hard pressed to not be a bottom 5 d from here out. I don't know how LeBron and Luka work, who's playing without the ball there exactly?

When is Luka supposed to be back? If its a while I'm thinking the Lakers are punting this season.

Probably more deals to be attempted one way or another for them.

I heard LeBron didn't know ahead of time. I wonder if they're discussing where he'd waive his no trade clause for right about now.

 

[Instinctive]

It also sucks that he goes to the Lakers. Like you couldn't trade him for Giannis? You ASKED FOR DAVIS? Didn't test anything else?

 

[Uncle Leo]

There are 3 guys I would have considered 100% untouchable, and he's 1 of them (SGA and Jokic the other 2).

And Wemby.

 

[Instinctive]

Also...ONE PICK IS ALL? ARE YOU ****ING NUTS? It's probably a garbage pick too because THEY HAVE LUKA NOW

 

[Deamon]

1. Wow. I think this is the wildest most unexpected professional sports trade I've seen in my lifetime. Maybe ever?

2. This makes the Lakers even more hate-able.... if that was even possible.

3. There was 100% something going on behind the scenes here between Luca and management/ownership. No way they secretly trade him otherwise.

 

[Deamon]

I heard LeBron didn't know ahead of time. I wonder if they're discussing where he'd waive his no trade clause for right about now.

Wouldn't he be happy about this?

 

[Yo Mama]

The Lakers roster doesn't make much sense right now. They just lost 2 of their 3 best defenders, and they'd be leaning on Jaxson Hayes to play big minutes at the 5. What they have left will be hard pressed to not be a bottom 5 d from here out. I don't know how LeBron and Luka work, who's playing without the ball there exactly?

When is Luka supposed to be back? If its a while I'm thinking the Lakers are punting this season.

Probably more deals to be attempted one way or another for them.

I heard LeBron didn't know ahead of time. I wonder if they're discussing where he'd waive his no trade clause for right about now.

Yeah seems like Lakers are taking a step back this year (barring some other deal) to set themselves up for the next decade.

 

[Yo Mama]

Also...ONE PICK IS ALL? ARE YOU ****ING NUTS? It's probably a garbage pick too because THEY HAVE LUKA NOW

Can’t believe they didn’t shop around. Obviously they didn’t want Luka to know they were wanting to trade him.

 

[millertyme1]

Mavs

 

[Uncle Leo]

Also...ONE PICK IS ALL? ARE YOU ****ING NUTS? It's probably a garbage pick too because THEY HAVE LUKA NOW

New York send Bojan Bogdanovic and five 1st-round draft picks to Brooklyn in exchange for Mikal Bridges. Yes AD is worth more than the five 1st Round picks, but Luka is worth a lot more than Mikal. Dallas should have received a lot more in Return.

 

[Gr00vus]

I heard LeBron didn't know ahead of time. I wonder if they're discussing where he'd waive his no trade clause for right about now.

Wouldn't he be happy about this?

He and Davis are pretty tight. They wanted to adjust what they had not split up.

LeBron is basketball savvy enough to know the current roster still isn't championship quality. There's no defense. More moves are needed. And he's now clearly number 2 on this team. Don't know if he's ready to accept that.

 

[identikit]

Now I'm extra sure that the Mavs got hosed when Kendrick Perkins says both teams won in this one

 

[Deamon]

Oh please basketball gods, PLEASE make a Lakers/Mavs playoff series happen this year.

 

[Uncle Leo]

It also sucks that he goes to the Lakers. Like you couldn't trade him for Giannis? You ASKED FOR DAVIS? Didn't test anything else?

Giannis is younger and better.

 

[Instinctive]

It also sucks that he goes to the Lakers. Like you couldn't trade him for Giannis? You ASKED FOR DAVIS? Didn't test anything else?

Giannis is younger and better.

SO IS LUKA

 

[identikit]

Simmons just posted an emergency podcast about this train robbery

 

[millertyme1]

Trade talks

 

[Yo Mama]

Nobody can ever be mad at me for posting unrealistic fake trades for the Lakers any more.

 

[Craig_MiamiFL]

Rockets win again

 

[ShamrockPride]

Trade makes no sense.
Trade makes neither team better.
But at least trade gives Lakers a guy that will sell tickets for a long time coming.....I guess.

Mavs are officially out of championship picture for a long time, like after another rebuild long time.

Lakers idk man....feel they got worse. That defense is a living, breathing turnstile now.

 

[scoobus]

Trade makes no sense.
Trade makes neither team better.
But at least trade gives Lakers a guy that will sell tickets for a long time coming.....I guess.

Mavs are officially out of championship picture for a long time, like after another rebuild long time.

Lakers idk man....feel they got worse. That defense is a living, breathing turnstile now.

Obviously the Lakers got worse for this year, but who cares they weren't going anywhere anyways.

They just got a 25-year-old Luka Doncic!

 

[Navin Johnson]

I thought Jerry West passed away

 

[zoobird]

This trade is bad on the level of "when they move the Mavs to Mexico City in ten years, people will point to this as the reason". For Mavs fans, what possible reason would they have to ever be excited about anything that happens to the team in the future?

 

[Long Ball Larry]

WTF DID I JUST READ ABLOUT LUKA DONCIC AM I ACTUALLY AWAKE RIGHT NOW WHO DUMPS THIS NEWS AT 1 AM ON SUNDAY MORNING HWART IN THE NAME OF SWC IS GOJNG ON HERE?!?!?!

 

[Major]

Damn. As a Pistons fan - why not give us a chance?

I'm a 76'er fan and one of my first reactions was "why did Morey not get on this with Embid" and then I remembered they can't trade him until next year.

But to your point, one of the most amazing mind blowing things about this trade is Luka was not shopped. People can go on and on about Luka being fat, tension, contract issues, etc,etc. He still should have been considered untouchable but if not you got to shop him, not target Anthony Davis.

Wow, just waking up to the news. This reminds me a lot of the Texans trading DHop in his prime to ARZ for peanuts when Bill O'Brien could have easily gotten 3 1sts for him elsewhere. Granted, Luka is on another level of elite. This may go down as the dumbest trade in sports history.

 

[Long Ball Larry]

Simmons just posted an emergency podcast about this train robbery

This is actually I found out about i was checking my podcasts to listen to something and possibly go back to sleep and i saw that and thought it was like April fools day or something. Instead it’s Groundhog Day and we’re all living through this nightmare where the lakers keep falling *** backwards into stars

 

[Capella]

I can’t believe that trade is real. Holy ****.

 

[AAABatteries]

You don’t ever trade a Luka.

Hawks fans.

 

[AAABatteries]

The conspiracy nuts will be all over this and for once, I might not totally laugh at them. This is crazy.

 

[Long Ball Larry]

Nico Harrison has had a pretty good run as Gm doing things that most disagreed with at the time: Jason Kidd hire, letting Brunson go, the midseason trades last year. To the point where i would have given him the benefit of the doubt on most moves at this point. But a big part of the reason that those moves worked out was the fact that he had a generational player on the team…

 

[Long Ball Larry]

“I had a current NBA All-Star text me and say, ‘Do you know how much the Mavericks must hate Luka?’”

–@WindhorstESPN on how the league is reacting to the Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade

 

[Boston]

I need to know more about Luka's diet...is he eating Hostess donettes with Mountain Dew three times a day to go along with a pack of Parliaments...there is a lot going on here but the fact they moved him at 25 years old for a 32 year old with only one #1 attached to the deal makes this feel like they think he is gonna be hitting a wall sooner rather than later...he's only 25, do you really need to panic right now because 's he not eating his greens.

 

[scoobus]

Only 2 of the top 10 picks from the 2018 draft are now on their original teams (Jaren Jackson Jr. and Trae Young). Not sure how common or rare that is for a draft that far in the rearview, but struck me as interesting. Pick #11 was SGA, who despite potentially winning the MVP this season is also not on his original team.

 

[Capella]

Russillo said he heard from other teams that they didn’t even know Luka was available. How do you trade that guy without even starting a bidding war??????????

 

[Juxtatarot]

Luka must have had a small list of teams he’d be willing to commit to. Like maybe just LA and Miami.

 

[Max Power]

I can’t believe that trade is real. Holy ****.

I saw it on Facebook this morning and thought it was one of those dumb clickbait posts.

I've stopped watching the NBA since the Bulls stopped trying, but trades like are the constant reminder the game will never be like it was in the 90s again.

 

[Instinctive]

Luka must have had a small list of teams he’d be willing to commit to. Like maybe just LA and Miami.

Nope. Luka had no trade intentions. Don't give so much credit to the new owners and Nico.

 

[McBokonon]

I see everyone has already heard that Markieff Morris is a Laker again.

 

[Capella]

I can’t believe that trade is real. Holy ****.

I saw it on Facebook this morning and thought it was one of those dumb clickbait posts.

I've stopped watching the NBA since the Bulls stopped trying, but trades like are the constant reminder the game will never be like it was in the 90s again.

Shaq left the Magic for the Lakers literally in 1996

 

[Instinctive]

I thought when I woke up that this was literally a bad dream brought on like only the sleep deprivation of a 4-week old can bring.

Nope.

Maybe Nico has a daughter that Pelinka kidnapped? I can't think of many things that would suddenly make me this dumb but thats probably on the list.

 

[Juxtatarot]

Luka must have had a small list of teams he’d be willing to commit to. Like maybe just LA and Miami.

Nope. Luka had no trade intentions. Don't give so much credit to the new owners and Nic

Zach Harper wrote about “whispers” about him signing in Miami in 2026. Miami has been preparing for something with future cap space. Just seems like there is a lot we don’t know.

 

[Max Power]

I can’t believe that trade is real. Holy ****.

I saw it on Facebook this morning and thought it was one of those dumb clickbait posts.

I've stopped watching the NBA since the Bulls stopped trying, but trades like are the constant reminder the game will never be like it was in the 90s again.

Shaq left the Magic for the Lakers literally in 1996

Shaq and Barkley changing teams were the biggest moves of the decade.

The amount of superstars who stay with 1 team during their prime is the exception these days.

 

[jvdesigns2002]

So I just read something about how Luka would have been eligible for a super max contract with the Mavs—-5 years $345 million—which he would be in line to get offered this summer. With declining viewership—I wonder if the Mavs were worried about committing that kind of money to him for 5 years with his conditioning issues? For Luka—getting traded makes him no longer eligible for a super max—so that’s a pretty big financial hit (he’ll still be okay. lol).

 

[Desert_Power]

Nobody can ever be mad at me for posting unrealistic fake trades for the Lakers any more.

The exception that proves the rule.

 

[Desert_Power]

The Lakers roster doesn't make much sense right now. They just lost 2 of their 3 best defenders, and they'd be leaning on Jaxson Hayes to play big minutes at the 5. What they have left will be hard pressed to not be a bottom 5 d from here out. I don't know how LeBron and Luka work, who's playing without the ball there exactly?

When is Luka supposed to be back? If its a while I'm thinking the Lakers are punting this season.

Probably more deals to be attempted one way or another for them.

I heard LeBron didn't know ahead of time. I wonder if they're discussing where he'd waive his no trade clause for right about now.

They need to make a move for a 5, but this move doesn't really change that.

 

[millertyme1]

RIP Mavs blogger

 

[Alex P Keaton]

Maybe LeBron is getting traded next