The Dallas Mavericks’ decision to trade guard Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers before the trade deadline back in February came so far out of left field that even the Slovenian was shocked. Just months after he spearheaded the Mavericks’ first Finals run in over a decade, he got moved to a new team.
Ahead of his first full season in a Lakers uniform, Doncic said that he did not want to “upset” fans of the storied franchise following the “shock” he felt of being traded. He also admitted that he didn’t have a clue how to react to being dealt at the time.
“I didn’t know how to react, how to act, what to say,” Doncic told the Wall Street Journal. “It was a lot of shock. I felt Dallas was my home. I had many friends there. The fans always supported me. I didn’t want to upset Dallas fans. And I didn’t want to upset Laker fans.”
Doncic’s shock might have carried over into his play on the court across his first few games with the Lakers. After all, he dropped just 44 points across his opening three contests as a Laker combined, and Los Angeles lost games against lowly Utah Jazz and Charlotte Hornets teams in that small stretch.
However, he looked more and more comfortable with the team as the season dragged on, and Doncic was pretty convincingly the Lakers’ top performer in the 2025 NBA Playoffs. He averaged 30.2 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.8 assists per contest in the team’s first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Los Angeles bowed out in the opening round despite being a top-three seed in the West, but the blame for that series loss doesn’t rest on Doncic’s shoulders.
While Doncic has ingratiated himself with Lakers fans at this juncture, there are plenty of Mavericks fans who aren’t likely to get over the team’s choice to move him anytime soon. Dallas ended up not even making the 2025 NBA Playoffs after it moved on from the star guard.
While the Mavericks did land the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and used that selection on a potential star in Cooper Flagg, it’s still hard to argue that the move to trade Doncic aged well for a Dallas squad that knocked on the door of a championship not long ago. It should be fascinating to see how the Lakers and Mavericks fare in the coming season.
