Jaylen Brown Reportedly Main Reason Mav’s Traded Away Luka Doncic

By Adam Moskal

The Luka Doncic trade to the Lakers was one of the most surprising moves the NBA has seen in years. There has little talk from the Mavericks regarding their reasoning behind the massive transaction, but that has not stopped league Insiders and those supposedly in the know from reporting on the matter.

Marc Spears, NBA Insider, believes that Doncic’s performance on both sides of the court in the NBA Finals, especially while matched up with Celtics’ Jaylen Brown, factored into the decision to trade the 25-year-old star. The Mav’s front office reportedly was not all in on continuing to have Luka be their leader and face of the team due to his lack of leadership off-the-court and virtually non-existent defensive performance in the biggest games of the season, Spears added. 

The exact reasoning for why Dallas made the move is not confirmed Spears commented, but some theories are being pieced together.

“Phenomenal offensive player, definitely like a showman that Lakers love to have but it had to be a shock to his system,” Spears added of Doncic. “I think they wanted him to be a better leader, more professional, better coworker and so I think people lean on the whole ‘was he in shape?’ part, it was much deeper than that.”

Alluding to the unknown details of the decision behind the move, Spears said, “Was it warranted or not warranted? I think you’ve got to ask the Dallas people off the record while you’re there like ‘why?’ and they’ll probably tell you a bunch of reasons why.”