CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Many NBA fans, and media members, woke up Sunday morning stunned.
The only person not shocked by the late Saturday night/early Sunday morning trade that sent Luka Dončić to the Lakers and Anthony Davis back to Dallas was Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson.
“I don't think I was as surprised,” Atkinson said. “If I was two years in the league, I probably would be surprised. So nothing surprises me anymore and yeah, really wasn't that surprised, just to be honest.”
While Atkinson wasn’t shocked, Mavericks coach Jason Kidd admitted the obvious.
“It is a little shocking, but in the sense we have to push forward as a organization, as a team,” Kidd said.
The Mavericks have plenty of explaining to do and general manager Nico Harrison did his best Sunday afternoon prior to their game with the Cavaliers at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
“We definitely understand the magnitude of what just transpired. It's not lost on us,” Harrison said.
“We feel that defense wins championships and we're excited to go. We feel like we're built to win now as well as in the future.”
Dallas sent Dončić, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to the Lakers in a three-team deal that also includes the Utah Jazz for Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round draft pick.
Dončić was in line for a super max contract this summer and Dallas clearly had reservations about the 25-year old’s future.
“There's some unique things about his contract that we had to pay attention to,” Harrison said. “There's other teams that were loading up that he was going to be able to decide, make his own decision at some point of whether he wants to be here or not, whether we want to supermax him or not, or whether he wants to opt out. So I think we had to take all that into consideration and feel like we got out in front of what could have been a tumultuous summer.”
Dončić has finished no worse than sixth in MVP voting in four of the past five seasons while averaging 28.6 points, 8.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists.
Dallas gets the 31-year-old Davis, who helped the Lakers win the NBA championship in 2020 and is on pace for the 10th 20-point, 10-rebound season of his career as he is averaging 25.7 points and 11.9 rebounds per game this season.
“A lot of people don't talk about what he does defensively and offensively, but if you guys, you can name first team All-NBA players that are also first team All-Defensive players, that's a unique unicorn to try to find and we're able to find that,” Harrison said.
Harrison admitted that Kidd was not informed of the trade until right before the deal was announced but was confident Kidd would be on board.
“J Kidd didn't know about it, but J Kidd and I are aligned and we talk about archetypes and we talk about the culture that we want to create,” Harrison said. “So I know the type of players that he likes without actually talking to him.”
Harrison was asked to address angry Mavericks fans for trading a fan favorite and face of the franchise away in his prime.
“I'm sorry, they're frustrated, but it's something that we believe in as an organization,” Harrison said. “It's going to make us better. We believe that it sets us up to win, not only now, but also in the future. And when we win, I believe the frustration will go away.”