Dallas, the city where GMs lose their minds

For at least a decade, if not longer, the Dallas market has been lorded over by a GM who makes questionable decisions, but keeps their job.

That is easy to explain when you throw in the fact that the GM is also the owner. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has done things his own way and for the past 30 years has nothing (football wise) to show for it. Sure, he has boatloads of cash and his team is the most valuable team in the world, but when it comes to hardware his display case is ss full as mine.

He has received a lot of the vitriol from that market, but now may finally find some respite thanks to another local GM who made a decision that set the sports world abuzz.

I am of course talking about the Dallas Mavericks’ seemingly out of the blue decision to offload their 25-year old, five time All-NBA superstar Luka Doncic. Essentially, Dallas traded arguably the best player in the NBA for an aging Anthony Davis and a first round pick. The GM who pulled off this head-scratcher of a trade is Nico Harrison. A year ago, Harrison was lauded for his trade for the enigmatic Kyrie Irving and the move paid off in a big way as the Mavs made the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics.

Now, Harrison is being blasted by the media, fans and essentially everyone for giving up an all-time player in his prime for essentially peanuts.

While I agree that the trade was very lopsided and favors the Lakers, especially over the next 7-10 years, I try to not be so knee-jerk and fall in with the masses with these things.

Dallas has the best insight to Luka and there has to be something to their willingness to offload him with so many prime years left. Everyone knows that Luka is a liability on defense and pivoting to Davis shows that Dallas didn’t believe they could win a championship with Luka’s faults, no matter how much his offense could offset.

Another common critique of Doncic is his readiness as a player. That is a nice way of saying  he is out of shape and in poor conditioning (for an NBA player. He would run circles around the average person obviously).

In the short term, I am not so sure that Los Angeles is that much better. Luka hasn’t played since Christmas and will have to acclimate with a new team and system, although I imagine his offense will easily translate to any system.

The reason I say in the short term it may not show up as a boost is that the Lakers were actually playing well, sitting in 5th place in the West and fresh off a drubbing of the Knicks.

Once Luka settles in, however, his game will elevate the Lakers and give them a realistic shot at making a run in the playoffs. Yes, LA did lose their only rim protector in Davis, who is having a great year, but the playoffs are about being able to get clutch buckets and now Luka and LeBron can create some magic.

Dallas will probably be right where they have been all season, as Davis will move the needle a little on the defensive end, but the offense will fall back some without 77.

Ultimately, time will tell how this trade looks, but for now, Dallas is the clear loser and Jerry Jones couldn’t be happier.