Less than one year removed from an NBA Finals appearance, the Dallas Mavericks caught the league by surprise after trading star Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers prior to the trade deadline. The move sent Doncic to the West Coast in exchange for Anthony Davis and Max Christie, rapidly shifting the current outlook of both franchises.

The Mavericks have been under fire since moving on from Doncic, citing conditioning issues, among other reasons for general manager Nico Harrison pulling the trigger.

During a recent appearance on ‘The Cedric Maxwell’ podcast, NBA Insider Marc Spears offered his opinion on the trade. According to Spears, Dallas began to question Doncic after the finals loss to the Celtics, namely due to his performance in the matchup against Jaylen Brown.

READ MORE: Mavericks front office ranked near bottom of the NBA in aftermath of Luka Doncic trade

Brown was named the NBA Finals MVP after averaging 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 1.6 steals per game while serving as the primary defender on Doncic.

Doncic, who was playing through multiple injuries, averaged 29.2 points per game and recorded a triple-double in game two. With that being said, he only shot 24.4% from three-point range and 58.6% from the charity stripe.

“That dude, he is the reason why Luka got traded. He shut him down in the finals,” Spears said to Maxwell. “What he did to Luka in the Finals, shutting him down, guarding him full court, making it unbearable offensively, led Dallas to start questioning Luka as the leader of the team, and questioning whether he was in shape or not.”

“Right? Like if Dallas wins that series, he’s still in Dallas,” Spears added.

Spears went into detail about the operations of the trade, noting that Harrison doesn’t just make moves without a reason. The move came as a shock for the franchise but Spears believes some of Doncic’s issues could be highlighted in Los Angeles.

“I know Nico real well, he doesn’t just do stuff. I think there’s more to that story that I think they’re trying to be respectful and not going into the weed but now we’ll see how things go with Luka in LA because things are already going to be much more magnified,” Spears said. “They’re already starting to show more video about defensively with him and how teams target him and stuff like that.”

“Phenomenal offensive player, definitely like a showman that Lakers love to have but it had to be a shock to his system,” Spears continued. “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. 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.”

“I know from a business standpoint it was certainly shocking to people with the Mavs, everybody. I mean they like they got players on teams in the NBA that won’t get traded because they make the team too much money regardless of their drama, and you can kind of figure out who I may be talking about in this league,” Spears added. “That part from a financial standpoint, I think that is probably the biggest hit, when you lose somebody that popular, just how do you recover from people turning on the franchise?”

Doncic will face off against the Mavericks for the first time since he was traded on Tuesday night. He’ll make his return to Dallas on April 9.

Mavericks: Anthony Davis, Max Christie, 2029 Lakers first-round pick

Lakers: Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber, Markieff Morris

Jazz: Jalen Hood-Schifino, 2025 Clippers second-round pick, 2025 Mavericks second-round pick

READ MORE: Kyrie Irving sounds off before facing Luka Doncic in Mavericks-Lakers matchup

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