NBA Rumors: Dallas Mavericks GM has wanted to trade Luka Doncic for a long time

By the time he was 25, Luka Doncic had made the All-NBA first team five times and is widely considered one of the NBA's top five active players, yet the Dallas Mavericks showed no interest in having him as a franchise player.

NBA insider Marc Stein claims that because the Mavs didn't want to assemble a squad centered around the five-time All-Star, general manager Nico Harrison was "determined" to move Dončić by this summer at the latest:

Naturally, though, after some time has passed since the first shock, you are starting to hear more of the rumors that the Mavericks had managed to keep hidden for months. According to league sources, Dallas' decision-makers, particularly general manager Nico Harrison, had become resolved to move Dončić by this summer at the latest because they no longer wanted the team to revolve around him.

Dončić was scheduled to become eligible for a supermax contract this summer, thus it was known that the Mavs had "major concerns" about his conditioning difficulties in the immediate wake of the trade that brought him to the Los Angeles Lakers.

In support of the idea that Doncic would have been traded in the offseason if the Lakers' agreement hadn't materialized, Christian Clark, Mike Vorkunov, and Fred Katz of The Athletic reported on February 17 that Dallas was "never going to offer" the five-year, $345 million supermax extension.

In an interview with ESPN's Tim MacMahon following the trade (via ESPN's Dave McMenamin), Harrison stated that he made the trade in order to assemble a top-tier defensive club that could contend for a championship, with Anthony Davis as its focal point.

Harrison stated, "I think defense wins championships." "I think we have a better chance if we have an All-Defensive center and an All-NBA player with a defensive mentality. We are designed to succeed both now and in the future.

The idea that Doncic would not age well is very plausible. Only twice in his career has he played 70 games in a season, and he has missed at least 12 games in four straight seasons, including the 2024–25 campaign.

However, the potential of a club with Dončić at its core is very considerable. He just guided the Mavericks to the NBA Finals as the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference the previous season, so we know this.

During the previous season's playoffs, Doncic made 22 starts and averaged 28.9 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 8.1 assists per game.

Harrison must hope that his bet pays out because his employment situation is already being closely scrutinized for making this transaction if the Mavs don't win enough in the upcoming years.

Things can quickly change if the organization starts to struggle, even if Harrison had the support of Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont to make the move.