The Dallas Mavericks have entered a crisis.
After trading for Kyrie Irving to pair with Luka Doncic, the Mavericks’ struggles have reached a boiling point. At 37-40, they are two games behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for the 10th spot in the West standings with less than two weeks remaining in the regular season.
The recent struggles — on and off the court for the Mavericks — have caused people to ponder Doncic’s long-term future in Dallas. He is signed through the 2026-27 season, which is a player option he can decline. This means the Mavericks only have two guaranteed seasons left with Doncic.
Anticipating the doomsday scenario of Doncic asking out occurring, Bleacher Report writer Andy Bailey created four trade proposals with four separate teams.
One of them was the Thunder.
Here’s the proposed trade idea by Bailey on what it’d take for the Thunder to land Doncic:
“If Dončić demands out, OKC could offer a prime package of picks, Josh Giddey, Chet Holmgren and Luguentz Dort as the salary filler. Jalen Williams is another possible addition to the framework.
The remaining roster would be pretty bare-bones, but a backcourt of Luka and SGA would be nightmarish for the rest of the Western Conference.
And with those two in place, you wouldn’t need to add much beyond defense and spot-up shooting. That can be easier said than done, but the trickiest part of team-building is landing the stars.
Something like this would put the Thunder ahead of most of the rest of the league on that front.”
Phew. That’s quite the haul for Doncic. I understand he’s going to go down as one of the greatest players ever, but it’s hard justifying stripping down OKC’s roster for someone who might not stay in the long run.
A more reasonable proposal would likely center around two of the Josh Giddey/Jalen Williams/Chet Holmgren trio, as many draft picks as possible and filler. To give up four of your top five players is too tall of an ask — even for someone as generational as Doncic.
Considering the reaction to the trade idea, it looks like Thunder fans also are going to give a hard no on this proposal.
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