The Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks executed one of the most stunning deals in the history of sports late Saturday night, swapping Luka Dončić and Anthony Davis. Las Vegas responded quickly, and perhaps not in the way Dallas was hoping.
At BetMGM, the Lakers’ odds for winning their 18th NBA championship more than doubled, going from +4000 to +1800. That’s a change in implied probability from 2.44% to 5.26%.
As for the Mavericks, they went from +2000 to +3000. Clearly, oddsmakers didn’t love the idea of a team headlined by Davis and Kyrie Irving, at least relative to Dončić and Irving.
NBA line movement after the Luka-Anthony Davis trade at @BetMGM
NBA Championship
▪️ Lakers +4000 to +1800 📈
▪️ Mavericks +2000 to +3000Western Conference
▪️ Lakers +2000 to +900
▪️ Mavericks +1200 to +1600 pic.twitter.com/kzHteT2lq8— John Ewing (@johnewing) February 2, 2025
Meanwhile, the MVP odds for both players are still off the board.
The fits for both teams will be fascinating. Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison espoused the classic “defense wins championships” line while defending the trade, and he can at least say his team is better defensively, though the team already had a strong defensive big man in Daniel Gafford.
The question is if the team will in any way be able to make up for the loss of Dončić on offense. There are few offensive engines like Dončić in the history of basketball, with a career average of 28.6 points and 8.3 assists per game across six seasons. And then there’s the long-term repercussions, which are significant for Dallas given that Davis turns 32 years old next year while Dončić is 25.
On the Lakers’ side, they now have to figure out how Dončić and LeBron James, who reportedly had no idea the move was happening, coexist on offense, as well as what they do without Davis on defense. Both James and Dončić are future Hall-of-Famers, but they have also both needed the ball in their hands to be their best selves.
Down low, the Lakers’ center rotation is now something like Jaxson Hayes, Trey Jemison III and Christian Koloko, with Rui Hachimura, Jarred Vanderbilt and Dorian Finney-Smith as power forwards. It’s not quite a group that screams contender, but the point of pairing James and Dončić is to make that not matter.
Both teams are taking on a significant risk here, though the Lakers can at least say they’re helping themselves long-term after worries about what they do in a post-James world. And we’ve still got a few days until the NBA trade deadline for both teams to make additional moves.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here."Neymar, Neymar, Neymar, Neymar" 🎵Ne
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