Anthony Davis To DC!

ANOTHER HUGE TRADE IN THE NBA!!!

Man, I absolutely love this portion of the NBA season with all this movement and the obvious drama that comes with these deals coming to life.

Alrighty, so the Dallas Mavericks went ahead and moved on from AD just a little over a year and some change after acquiring him for Luka Dončić. Where and what they got for him is the most puzzling piece of it all.

The trade goes as follows: Dallas sends Anthony Davis, Jaden Hardy, D’Angelo Russell, and Dante Exum in exchange for Khris Middleton, AJ Johnson, Malaki Branham, Marvin Bagley, two first round picks, and three second round picks from Washington.

Alright, let’s get into this for both squads. First, Dallas… what the hell are we doing!!!

The Mavericks have essentially traded Luka for three first round picks, but let’s be real. One of those from the Washington deal is a 2026 first round pick and that’s not going to be great. Then we’ve got a protected first from the Warriors in 2030, which isn’t ideal either, with the best pick still coming from the Lakers in the original Luka AD exchange. After that, it’s basically a bunch of scraps, with the most valuable player asset probably being Max Christie, who was essentially a throw in during the original deal, funny enough.

I don’t know, this just feels like poor asset management from the Mavericks going all the way back to the original trade. Regardless, why not just wait until AD gets back, let him play his value up, and then deal him somewhere else instead of settling for a deal like this that doesn’t really bring back much value at all?

It’s just sad. And for Mavs fans everywhere, I really feel for you. You gave up your franchise star a year and some change ago, only to then trade the star player you acquired in that deal for what feels like a bag of chips. Man oh man… wow.

Alright, onto brighter news or at least brighter pastures. DC is cooking.

Earlier this season, they traded an expiring CJ McCollum and sharpshooter Corey Kispert for Trae Young from Atlanta, which already felt like a great deal considering what they gave up. Now they’ve gone out and acquired Anthony Davis from Dallas for a group of players that weren’t expected to be on the team next year, or even past this Thursday, plus two first round picks that aren’t very favorable considering the chances of those picks even being good at all.

In such a short amount of time, they’ve acquired a bunch of first round swaps from Phoenix after trading Beal, while also adding young and promising talent like Bilal Coulibaly, Alex Sarr, Kyshawn George, and their first round pick this year, Tre Johnson.

They’ve completely turned this team around in no time, and they’ve done a phenomenal job. What I’m assuming happens for the rest of this season is Trae Young heals up, likely for the remainder of the year, and the same goes for Anthony Davis, making sure these young guys get as many reps as possible. Then next year, they hopefully really take off, led by Trae and AD alongside that young core. A frontcourt of AD and Sarr is perfect for a guard like Trae, who may struggle defensively due to his lack of size, and it should prove to be extremely effective.

The team isn’t complete by any means, but they’re definitely on the right track. And for Dallas… well, they got Cooper Flagg, so there’s that. That’s more than most franchises can say, to be fair.

But still… what a trade.