Nine months after trading Luka Dončić to the Lakers in perhaps the most ridiculed deal in NBA history, Nico Harrison is now unemployed. The Dallas Mavericks parted ways with him on Tuesday after leaks
began springing up about his job security in recent days.
The Mavericks are now expected to work with Anthony Davis and his agent, Rich Paul, over the next few months “as they decide whether to pursue an in-season trade,” according to longtime NBA reporter Marc Stein. However, one Western Conference official told Stein that “Davis will need weeks of sustained good play without injury interruption to convince teams to make representative offers for the 32-year-old closer to the trade deadline when he still has two full seasons left on a three-year, $175 million contract.”
Davis has missed the Mavericks’ past seven games with a calf strain, and team owner Patrick Dumont “has requested medical data indicating” that Davis is not at risk of aggravating his injury before he’ll be cleared to return, according to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. “There is concern about Davis suffering a potentially catastrophic injury if the calf strain is not completely healed,” MacMahon added.
Seeing as Davis is the main return that the Mavericks got for Dončić, they’ll likely have no interest in selling low on him. But if he can string together a stretch of healthy play and the Mavericks do begin shopping him, could the Lakers be legitimate bidders?
It’s a long shot, but never say never.
The Mavericks are well above the first apron, which means they can’t take back more salary than they send out in a trade. The Lakers are $1.1 million below the first apron, so they can take back more salary than they send out, but they’re also hard-capped at the first apron. In other words, neither side has much financial flexibility, which means the Lakers might need to loop in a third team to swing a deal for Davis.
Davis is earning $54.1 million this season. From a salary standpoint, the easiest framework would be Davis for LeBron James ($52.6 million) and Adou Thiero ($1.3 million). The Lakers would be taking back roughly $225,000 more in salary than they’re sending out, so they’d still stay below the hard cap, and the deal would be legal on Dallas’ side as well. The big issue is that LeBron has a full no-trade clause, so he could put the kibosh on that deal even if the Lakers and Mavericks agreed to it.
From the Mavericks’ standpoint, there would only be two reasons to agree to such a deal. If Davis can’t stay healthy and they’re looking to escape from the remainder of his contract, flipping him for James’ expiring deal could give them some salary-cap flexibility after the 2026-27 season when Klay Thompson and Naji Marshall come off their books. Otherwise, if James is open to being rerouted between now and the Feb. 5 trade deadline, the Mavericks could hold a bidding war for him.
Assuming a Davis-James swap is off the table, it would be harder — but not impossible — for the Lakers to cobble together the salary for Davis. Rui Hachimura ($18.3 million), Austin Reaves ($13.9 million) and one of Jarred Vanderbilt ($11.6 million) or Gabe Vincent ($11.5 million) would get them up to nearly $44 million. A package including Hachimura, Reaves, Vanderbilt and Maxi Kleber ($11.0 million) gets them right around Davis’ salary, but it’s slightly over, which would be illegal on Dallas’ end.
It’s more difficult than it might seem to bridge that gap, too. The Hachimura-Reaves-Vincent-Kleber package is roughly $570,000 more in salary than the Mavericks can take back, but neither team has many small contracts to include as equalizers. For instance, if the Lakers wanted to include Jaxson Hayes ($3.4 million), the Mavericks would try to balance it out with Dwight Powell ($4.0 million). However, that would result in them taking roughly $20,000 more than they sent out, which is a no-go.
One deal structure that does work financially for both sides is Hachimura, Reaves, Kleber, Adou Thiero and one of Vanderbilt or Vincent for Davis and Dante Exum. However, that would leave the Lakers less than $1 million below the first-apron hard cap, and they’d still have multiple roster spots to fill. As good as Davis is, is he that much of an upgrade to justify annihilating their depth? Or would the Lakers just be better off keeping Reaves instead?
While it’s fun to imagine what a Luka-LeBron-AD or Luka-Reaves-AD triumvirate might look like, neither framework — either one built around LeBron or one built around Reaves, Hachimura and contract filler — would be easy for the Lakers to pull off. Then again, that’s what they’re paying Rob Pelinka millions of dollars for.
