IN CASE YOU missed the news that blew up the NBA as we know it over the weekend, Slovenian superstar Luka Dončić is being sent to the LA Lakers to join LeBron James, in exchange for center Anthony Davis.
The news, delivered by ESPN analyst Shams Charania late on Saturday night in the US (mid-afternoon Sunday here in Australia), was initially met with disbelief and questions as to whether the analyst’s account had been hacked – Charania posted again, “Yes, it’s real”. Cynicism was quickly replaced by mass bewilderment.
Why would the Mavericks trade a 25-year-old superstar who’s already made five All-NBA First teams and led the team to the NBA Finals last year, for Davis, a 31-year-old center with a long injury history. Why would the Mavericks not shop Dončić around and try and extract the best value for their player, instead of settling for a trade that returns 60-70 cents on the dollar, by most analysts’ estimates.
It doesn’t help that the two kingmakers in the deal, the Lakers GM Rob Pelinka and Mavericks GM, Nico Harrison, have a friendship going on 30 years, making the whole thing look rather fishy.
It hasn’t taken long for conspiracy theorists to fill the void of verified information: the NBA needs the Lakers, the league’s biggest team, and largest media market, to be a marketable commodity once James retires. By fleecing the Mavericks of Dončić, Pelinka has shored up his team’s future for the next decade, adding to the franchise’s infamous legacy of poaching superstars: Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal, Pau Gasol and James and Davis themselves. Dončić is simply the latest addition to a franchise that refuses to rebuild the old-fashioned way: tanking for draft picks. Why would you when you know most players in the league will happily come play in your city?
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While the dirt on the deal will surely come out over the coming days, right now the Mavericks’ line is that Dončić’s conditioning and dietary habits are not up to the standard of a player who can lead a team to a championship.
Harrison said he prioritises defence. “I believe that defence wins championships. I believe that getting an All-Defensive center and an All-NBA player with a defensive mindset gives us a better chance. We’re built to win now and in the future,” he told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.
There are reports that Dončić, who’s been warming the bench in street clothes for the last month or so, has blown out to 270 pounds (122 kg). The Mavericks were reportedly frustrated with his commitment to staying in shape year-round.
It’s true, the Slovenian likes to let loose on his Euro summers, return to pre-season training camp carrying extra weight and then play himself into shape. Apparently, the Mavs’ front office didn’t think that was conducive to championship-winning basketball, despite the fact that it’s largely due to Dončić’s offensive wizardry that the team was able to make it all the way to the NBA finals last year.
If the focus on a player’s conditioning (read: weight) sounds familiar, it’s because similar frustrations have been levelled at another potential franchise-altering star these last few years: New Orleans Pelicans’ Zion Williamson. The Pelicans’ star is an athletic freak, but like Dončić, has a propensity to stack it on during the off-season. Another player who’s frequently copped a spray from social media firing squads for his physical condition is Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid. Like Williamson, he’s prone to injury.
Critics argue extra kilos turn players into injury liabilities. Excess weight puts more pressure on muscles and joints, they say, and when these players do inevitably break down, it’s harder for them to work their way back. It’s probably unfair to put Dončić in the same category as Williamson and Embiid; apart from this year, he’s largely been able to play through niggles, as he did during last year’s finals series against the Celtics.
The problem for Dončić, Williamson and Embiid, is that defence relies on effort and intensity, which are predicated on conditioning and while these players are motivated to perform on offence, they’re often then so spent they essentially become traffic cones on defence – witness the way Dončić was hunted by the Celtics last year.
With teams these days overflowing with strength and conditioning coaches, dietitians and sports scientists who pore over players’ body-fat percentages and minutes logged to calculate injury risk, these players are easy targets.
It’s worth noting that Dončić was eligible for the supermax extension, which would have netted him in the range of US $350m ($570M AUD). While on market rate alone, the Slovenian is certainly worth such an astronomical sum, it appears the Mavs aren’t willing to shell out that type of cash on a player who doesn’t take care of himself.
Would things be different if Dončić had already captured a ring? They might. All three players are throwbacks to a different era, when players like Shaq could roll into preseason camp looking like they’d spent the summer at Dominos, and finish the season with rings on their chubby fingers.
The difference perhaps, is that O’Neal actually delivered championships. Dončić, Williamson and Embiid are yet to do so and perhaps never will. You can bet if Nikola Jokić, another player with a wandering waistline at times, hadn’t managed to win a ring with the Denver Nuggets back in 2023, he too might have found himself in the firing line and potentially on the trading block.
Don’t believe me? Jokić and Dončić are both offensive magicians that are vulnerable on defence. Their stats are comparable, with Jokić edging Dončić slightly. The difference is that Jokić, touch wood, is rarely injured. More importantly, though, he won. Winning changes everything, even it seems, the way players are perceived.
Winning has always been the only thing that matters in sports, particularly for front-office bean counters and especially in the sports science/max contract era. Anything that threatens that bottom line, be it weight or work ethic, or both, will be used to justify a team’s actions, or as a cover for more unpalatable reasons. Even if you’re as talented as Luka Dončić.
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