The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - 'Dallas Could Have Gotten A Better Deal' in Luka Dončić Trade To Lakers

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

The future of two current top 10 NBA Western Conference teams has been turned upside down following a blockbuster trade that involved the Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz. The Lakers received Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris from the Mavericks. Dallas acquired Davis, Max Christie and the Lakers' 2029 first-round pick. The Jazz received Jalen Hood-Schifino, the LA Clippers' 2025 second-round pick and the Mavericks' 2025 second-round selection. "Dallas could have gotten a better deal," Mark Medina of FOX Sports Radio said. "We're talking about a generational talent" in Doncic. Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison confirmed in a press conference that trade talks were kept quiet between him and Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka. “We kept it between us. We had to. We had to keep it tight,” Harrison said. "No one knew about this," Medina said. "This decision is obviously [Harrison's] legacy." The deal brings Doncic and LeBron James together in Los Angeles, while Dallas gets a strong rim protector to complement Kyrie Irving.

And he joins us. It's Mark Medina. I believe it for the second time in the history of this radio show. Mark, it's Matt, here in New York City. Thanks for joining me today. We've been trying to find the parallels to this, an analogy. And Ross is my co-host, and he's not going to be a part of this interview. But Ross, I want you to jump on the headset real quick if he's there.

Are you there? Hello. I want you to give Mark the analogy you just gave to our audience, and then, Mark, I want you to grade the analogy based of what we saw in her to Sartartney-Tico. All right, Mark. So the Mavericks are this friend of ours that's dating like a nine and a half and she's smoking hot. And you're like, oh my God, he's so lucky. But deep within that relationship, there seems to be some discord. There's some issues that we don't even know about. So on the outside, it looks like a perfect scenario. But perhaps on the inside, there were some strife that we didn't know about. And that's thus the breakup. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense because unless Luca Dodgich said that he wants out, he wants to be traded, he's not going to. sign an extension. This doesn't make any sense. And the Mavericks, and you know, Lucaside

have maintained that that hasn't been the case. So I think your analogy is spot on that, you know, there might be some insecurity that, oh, this person is going to break up with me months down the line. So I'm going to get ahead of the curve, even though I want to keep that person, but I just don't want to get my heartbroken. That seems to be the analogy here. But the thing that is really confusing on top of that is that Dallas could have gotten a better deep. I mean, they got Anthony Davis. He's a great player. They got Max Christie.

He's an emerging young player. They got a first round pick. But, you know, you only have to look at the Rudy Goldberg trade to see how many, how much you can get in a deal as far as draft picks and other assets go. Now, it seems like from Dallas's end, they didn't want to prolong this and affect the locker room. And, you know, sometimes when things get out in the open, that can derail a deal. But we're talking about a generational talent.

I mean, the Lakers basically got a coup here. Mark, do you think part of the reason why the conversation was just to the Lakers is because word travels fast and lips will flap all around this world of sports and they start spreading the rumor out that he wanted to keep this as quiet as possible when he said, if I'm going to do that, I got to just kind of basically have a conversation with one team. Yeah, it seems like that was part of the calculus. I thought it was notable that Nico Harrison and his press conference the other day It was writing Rob Polinka for keeping this secret.

They had some informal conversations a few weeks ago, and it was very comforting to him that word didn't get out. So, yes, when you look at certain deals like this or several years ago when the Lakers got Powell-Gissau in 2008, no one knew about this. I think at the same time, though, we're in a different era where things get out quickly. there's a lot more people on staff, there's social media, that any expectation that nothing is out in the open

is fairly unrealistic, but I think given the context of they're talking about a generational star, if it's out, who knows how it affects the locker room and how Luca feels, and if a deal doesn't work out, you know,

is it almost like the toothpaste is out of the tube? But again, I go back to what the Dallas Mavericks got in return. Anthony Davis is a great, great player. He's a defensive player of the year candidate. They are a playoff team. But you could have gotten even more out of this. So I'm just really surprised that this is what they wound up agreeing upon. I don't know. Did you watch the press conference yesterday with Harrison and with Jason Kidd? I felt, first of all, disappointed with Jason Kidd because I think he was

a deer in headlines on this. And in Harrison's case, I just felt like he needed to backtrack in almost every single statement he said because people are probably in the that room going, this sounds good, but you're full of crap. I thought it was notable when Nico said right next to Jason, hey, he didn't know about it, but he's on board. And what Jason's supposed to say? I mean, he said he's on board, too. No one knew about this.

It's just one of those things that, again, unless Luca gave directives, I won out, you may as well get something of value out of me. I don't get this trade at all. I mean, the Dallas Mavericks made the NBA finals last season. And in fairness, I did talk to some executives before the season started for, you know, season preview type work. And some of them remarked to me that they felt like Dallas was a one-hit wonder as far as getting back to the finals. But didn't really have anything to do with Luca and any shortcomings he has. It was just more of the roster that there was a lot of credit being given that Kyrie,

Kyrie Irving's shown that he can co-exist with Luca. He's a better leader. They did get some roster depth. You know, they drafted Derek lively the second. They're PJ Washington. Great win player that just got Clay Thompson. But is it quite enough to compete in this very competitive Western Conference landscape? And when you're looking at this trade here, again, Anthony Davis is a great player.

He's going to coexist well with Kyrie Irving. But I don't think it really does anything as far as changing their playoff fortunes. It doesn't worsen it significantly in the short term. There's still a team that will be a tough playoff out, but I don't think that this catapults them in the Western Conference landscape. And I think the bigger thing is long term. There's a lot of questions. All their core players, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Clay Thompson,

they're getting older in age here. And where you contrast that with the Lakers, I think there's short-term questions about, even though Luca Dodgich is a generational talent, how's the fit going to be with LeBron, James, and Luca, even though there's a lot of respect for each other, just half a season's worth of games, is that enough to really get the chemistry going?

What are they going to do with the center position? And what are they going to do with their defense? I don't have any good defenders. But in the long term, the Lakers set themselves up to have that next generational superstar for whatever LeBron James decides to retire. And that's obviously going to be soon because he's 40 years old.

He still has a player option next year, but he's obviously said he's toward the end of his career than the beginning of it. So, yeah, there's a lot to unpack, and the contrast between what this means for the Lakers and the Mavericks couldn't be any clearer. Mark Medina's with it's Mark G underscore Medina M-E-D-I-N-A withers here from Athlon Sports, CBSLA, Spectrum, and, of course you're hearing weekends on Fox Sports Radio right here on sports talks of any. Are you really buying that LeBron didn't know anything about this before it went down? I do. I do buy it, actually. Look, I'm not going to be naive to say that LeBron James doesn't have influence on the Lakers.

But, you know, they obviously drafted Brody James. They know how LeBron feels about things. But I think the context that we have to be aware of is that the Lakers' dynamical LeBron James changed after the Russell Westbrook trade. Now, there's a lot of different versions depending on when you listen to the Lakers side of things or LeBron side of things as far as to what extent. his voice actually carried weight with this Russell Westbrook trade. You know, the Lakers would say, you know, LeBron really pushed for it at the 11th hour, even though they're about to get buddy healed.

LeBron's people will say, yeah, he was in support of Russ, but it was in the larger context of the Lakers asking him, as well as other deals. So with that context being said since then, because that deal hasn't worked out, there's been a healthy distance where the Lakers really have, haven't factored in his input when it's specifically with trade deadline moves and free agency moves. And LeBron has been detached from that process because I think from his own self-interest,

he doesn't want to get signed blame if a deal goes bad. And then says, yeah, well, this is what LeBron wanted. So I think we have to keep in mind that outside of them drafting Brony James, and I know that that has sparked a lot of reaction anyway, the Lakers haven't done anything that has reflected what LeBron's wanted from personnel standpoint. I think with Brony specifically, that calculus

is a little bit different where from the Lakers then, they didn't feel like they really gave up a lot because it's a second round pick. Most second round picks don't really pan out well that much. He hasn't really played much in the actual NBA. It's mostly been G-League games. So, yeah,

I do believe to your original question that he didn't know about it. Yeah, I Mark, I just feel like he knows everything. And so, and that doesn't really make a difference at the point. The deal was still made. But I think I'm just naturally hesitant to believe that Rich Paul and LeBron did not have some sort of intel beforehand. Let me get to the Dallas side before we wrap things up with you.

Tell me exactly what we know about Mark Cuban's current role with the team. I know we sold the majority interests of the franchise. I know that their new ownership in the Dallas organization has casino ties. they have never hidden the fact they want to get casino gambling in Texas to build, I think, perhaps a future palis involving the Mavericks and a gambling casino, mono, mono. If there's conspiracy theories out there in Twitter, which I don't believe in, but you know what, for the sake of this crazy story, is the Dallas Mavericks long-term future in jeopardy if casino gambling does not come to Texas? that is a very fluid thing it's very hard to really answer that question because there's so many moving parts as it pertains to any moves you know relocation or just having new business ventures but i think to the original point that you're making about mark cuban i think that this illustrates very clearly he doesn't run things at all and pertaining to the basketball side now he might still have some role on the business side. But if it were up to Mark Cuban,

they wouldn't be trading Luca Dantaj. I mean, he's already been on record in a very strong statement saying if he had to choose between, you know, staying with his wife or trading Luca, he would get his divorce papers ready. A little strong, but that's what Mark Cuban is known to say. I think the bottom line is,

whether it was Luca or Dirk or any kind of generational talent, Mark Cuban was very, you know, a strong believer that you hold on to those legendary players and don't make any exceptions whatsoever. Because there is the rumor that, and again, these are just rumors that if something falls apart in Dallas and the casino and the new ownership group doesn't get a casino, that they would be willing to move the team to Las Vegas.

I'm just curious, because you know Las Vegas is going to be a franchise either through expansion or a franchise moving. It's just a matter of time. Yeah, and I think the one thing, Again, these are moving parts, but I would be surprised just as educated guess that there is a relocation. The NBA could have the power to exert things, and the NBA doesn't want relocation to happen. They want expansion to happen. They also want to make sure that, you know, mid and small markets aren't a good position, too.

and so, you know, the MBA, now that there's not a commissioner that's having to be an acting owner with a franchise, they're not going to dig into personnel moves and say yes or nay on a deal. But they're, I think, going to be very active in making sure that all their different markets are well represented, and they feel like Dallas is a really strong market because of the history. So, again, a lot of fluidity. no one knows exactly how this will play out from the business end but i'll be on record and say i'd be surprised that it would be any relocation it would be expansion i got 30 seconds and you've been awesome mark as you normally are i listen on the weekends uh how long is nico harrison's leash

in dallas right this second um i think his leash is fine right the second but this uh this decision is obviously his legacy so um we're going to see very clearly how well this plays out. And again, I think the intriguing part about this is in the short term. I think they're going to be fine. They're a team that has been up and down all season for different reasons. They're still going to be a player in the playoffs. But I think even prior to this trade, they're stealing with second round at best.

I think where, you know, the chickens come home to roost, so to speak, is how things will look like, you know, the next two seasons with all this. Mark, thank you very much for the time. We really appreciate it. Looking forward to hear more of you on the weekends on Fox on here on this radio station. And thanks for joining us here this morning. Thanks so much. Great chalk and hoops with you guys.

Yeah, for sure. Thanks very much. Mark Medina joining us from 3,000 miles away from me in Los Angeles, where he has been all over this Lakers trade with the Dallas Mavericks.