The Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers last season, although they could have made a different move to pair him with LeBron James in Texas.
Last season, the Dallas Mavericks gifted LeBron James his single greatest teammate ever, pairing him with Luka Doncic on the Los Angeles Lakers. The deal came out of nowhere and still has the fanbase in a state of shock.
As a direct result of the trade, the Mavericks went from Western Conference frontrunners to a rebuilding, middling team. James, meanwhile, has finally started his decline, although Doncic and Austin Reaves are keeping him in the title hunt.
The Mavericks, led by Mark Cuban, have always loved the idea of landing a big-name star, and before they landed Kyrie Irving, James himself was on the trade block.
How Mavericks Could Have Made Title-Winning Move
It's no secret that LeBron James is one of the more difficult players in the NBA. One of his monikers, "LeGM," reached its head earlier in his Lakers' tenure.
James applied pressure to the front office to land Anthony Davis (a good move) and Russell Westbrook (a horrible move), and encouraged Los Angeles to add DeMar DeRozan and Klay Thompson in future free agencies. While he did win the Lakers the 2020 title, his tenure in Hollywood has been largley disapointing.
A few seasons ago, it all reached a boiling point.
"She even began to turn against the Lakers' star player, LeBron James," wrote Baxter Holmes for ESPN, regarding Jeanie Buss. "In 2022, in the aftermath of the Westbrook trade, multiple people said Jeanie privately mused about not giving James a contract extension and, later that year, even about trading James, with the LA Clippers floated as a possibility."
In order to match James' salary in 2022, the Clippers would have likely needed to give up Kawhi Leonard or Paul George. Given their injury history and their own disappointing stint in Los Angeles, the two teams may have agreed to a swap. Later in that 2022 season, the Mavericks made a move for Kyrie Irving.
Instead of sending Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian Finney-Smith to the Nets, they could have added Davis Bertans to the deal, pairing James with Doncic while The King was still in his prime.
In that 2022-23 season, James averaged 28.9 points and made the All-NBA Third Team. Putting that version of James on a Mavericks team led by Cuban and headlined by Doncic would have immediately made Dallas title frontrunners and would have given them the size on the wings to compete better with the Boston Celtics.
It's unclear just how close the Lakers were to actually dealing James away, although if Buss made him available, one can imagine Cuban dialing the phone to make a trade.