Mavericks trade Luka Doncic to Lakers for Anthony Davis in stunning 3-team blockbuster

 

Luka Doncic led Dallas to the NBA Finals last season. Anthony Davis won a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers.Now they've switched teams — in a blockbuster deal.Doncic was traded from the defending Western Conference champion Mavericks to the Los Angeles Lakers for Davis.

The trade was announced Sunday morning after the teams received league approval for all terms included in the deal.Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris are headed to the Lakers, while Davis and Max Christie are going to Dallas.

The Utah Jazz are also involved in the deal, getting Jalen Hood-Schifino and two draft picks - second-round picks this year, one from the Lakers and one from the Mavs.News of the trade were released about an hour after the Lakers' victory over New York at Madison Square Garden. Davis was not with the Lakers for the game; he had returned to Los Angeles with an abdominal injury that needed to be evaluated.

Doncic has not played for Dallas since Christmas, when he left a game with a strained calf. The trade could come at a high price for Doncic, who is currently ineligible to sign a five-year supermax contract extension this summer that could be worth around $345 million.It was never clear whether the Mavs would offer such a big deal. Doncic would also have the option to leave as a free agent after the 2025-26 season if he wanted to, and it's certain that other teams would have -- and perhaps already have -- planned for that scenario in hopes of bringing the Slovenian star.

"We really feel like we got ahead of what was going to be a tumultuous summer, him being eligible for the supermax and also a year away from him being able to opt out of any contract," Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison told The Dallas Morning News. "And so we really felt like we got out in front of that. We know teams, they've had it out there, teams have been loading up to try to sign him once that comes available."

Doncic is still extension eligible this summer, with the max that the Lakers could offer him being five years at about $230 million — a $115 million difference than what the supermax could have been.

The deal, at least for now, pairs Doncic with LeBron James as the new 1-2 punch in Los Angeles, while Davis would be forming a new star duo with Kyrie Irving in Dallas. And it also reunites Doncic with his former teammate, Lakers coach JJ Redick.

Doncic was one of the Mavericks players on the floor when Redick came out of a game for the final time on May 11, 2021.

There was one game still going on in the NBA on Saturday night when reports began swirling of the trade, that being Phoenix-Portland. Suns guard Devin Booker said someone in the stands told him and his teammates of the trade.