It has been over a month since the Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Dončić, and it still does not feel real.
Since that NBA trade happened, there have been reports regarding why they went through with a trade nobody believed actually happened when it was first announced. Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont wanted to set the record straight on why the Mavericks felt it was necessary to trade Dončić.
Luka Dončić Trade Was About the Mavericks’ ‘Future’
In a clip from a conference that apparently took place on February 13, 11 days after the trade happened, Dumont explained why Dallas decided to part ways with Dončić, per The Real Estate Council’s YouTube Channel.
“We looked at our trajectory during the season and realized that we did not get better, but the teams that we competed against, some of which we beat, did get better. So this was a decision about the future,” Dumont said.
He then elaborated on what he meant by building for the future.
“If you look at our roster today and who we have, we feel like we’ve positioned ourselves to be incredibly competitive against the best teams in the NBA,” Dumont said. “And if you’re a fan of basketball, I’ll just throw that out there: you have Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, P.J. Washington, Anthony Davis, and either Daniel Gafford or Dereck Lively [II] as your starting five. That’s going to put fear into a lot of teams in the league if we can get going.”
That sounds more like a team that’s building more for its present than for its future. If that’s not enough, Dončić is younger than every player Dumont lists except Lively. If building for the future was the goal, then wouldn’t it have made more sense to keep Dončić around, seeing how he’s one of the best players in the NBA?
Dumont also acknowledged the fans’ poor reaction to the trade while stressing that they must be patient.
‘We Know This Wasn’t Easy’, Says Dumont
“I heard from the fans, I respect their voices, I listened, we know that this wasn’t easy,” Dumont said. “If we lost any of our fans’ trust, it was hard, and I apologize, but I hope over time we can regain that trust through hard work, and that’s our plan. And hopefully, people will believe in the long run that what we did was the right decision. Time will tell.”
Unless the Mavericks win a championship soon, and that may be a while seeing how Irving tore his ACL, there’s really nothing Dumont can say that will get fans behind trading Dončić, the franchise’s best player since Dirk Nowitzki.
Dumont and the others in the Mavericks’ organization can play the long game if they want, but doing so could make things much worse if Dončić wins a title with the Lakers in the near future.