What if the Dallas Mavericks made Luka Doncic available to all 29 other teams?
It's a question team executives across the league pondered in the early hours of Feb. 2, when the NBA world was still coming to grips with the blockbuster that sent Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers and Anthony Davis to Dallas. The Lakers were the only team that Mavs general manager Nico Harrison spoke to about a deal.
To answer that question, we examined the teams that didn't land Doncic and put together the framework of 28 separate -- and hypothetical -- trades for the five-time All-NBA guard, plus what else general manager Rob Pelinka and the Lakers could have offered.
There are multiple caveats to the exercise.
The first and most important one is that the trade dialogue between the Mavericks and Lakers was complex and built on confidentiality. A big reason why the trade occurred is that there was no circus-type atmosphere of Doncic's trade rumors. If he was made available to the other 28 teams, the trade likely would have fallen apart.
"If it had leaked out and the trade hadn't happened, that would be really unfair to the progress that the coaching staff had made with the team," Lakers owner Jeannie Buss said in February. "Because it's a huge distraction."
The second caveat focuses on the intricacies of the salary cap and apron rules. At the time of the deal, the Lakers were $3.5 million below the second apron and not allowed to take back additional salary in trades. The Mavericks, on the other hand, were $526K below the first apron and needed Davis to waive his $5.1 million trade bonus. (In the below trade scenarios, we are applying the same apron restrictions -- and rosters -- the Mavericks and the 29 other teams had on Feb. 1.)
Finally, we took into consideration that Doncic, who could become a free agent in the summer of 2026, might not sign an extension with his new team. So the hypothetical trade packages for some of the rebuilding teams are watered down.
Which front offices would go all-in with players and picks, even if Doncic is on the roster for only 17 months? Which superstars would be made available to Dallas? And which trade might Harrison and the Mavericks choose if they had 29 on the table?
To find out, let's go back to the eve of arguably the most shocking trade in league history.
Jump to a Luka trade for:
ATL | BOS | BKN | CHA | CHI
CLE | DEN | DET | GS | HOU
IND | LAC | MEM | MIA | MIL | MIN
NO | NY | OKC | ORL | PHI | PHX
POR | SAC | SA | TOR | UTAH | WAS
The Luka trade
Los Angeles Lakers
What they traded:
Anthony Davis
Max Christie
2029 unprotected first-round pick
What they could have offered:
Anthony Davis
Austin Reaves
2029 unprotected first-round pick
2030 first-round swap
2031 unprotected first-round pick