Really good (long) ESPN article on how the Luka-Davis trade happened

[underpants]

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/43676830/how-stunning-luka-doncic-anthony-davis-trade-came-together-los-angeles-lakers-dallas-mavericks

Dallas had concerns about Luka’s weight and conditioning. They changed the training staff to remove people too friendly to Luka. They just weren’t sure they wanted to see him as their long term guy.

The Lakers kept this super secret. They’d been burned before both letting info get out and having trades negated.

Mark Cuban had no part of this as he’s not in ownership anymore. Cuban was a huge Luka fan so this probably wouldn’t have happened if he were still in the mix.

Utah - Danny Ainge - the 3rd party in this trade were not aware of who was being traded by the other teams until about an hour before the story broke.

[Mike 03]

1. I'll definitely read this. Luka's situation is somewhat different from what

I'm used to seeing, where a guy (Shaq) arrives at NBA camp totally out of shape. It looks from a quick search like Luka gained close to 40 pounds since camp. I guess that could be a red flag for a number of things.

I haven't been listening to sports radio at all but this trade is being discussed by a lot of people who don't cover sports so it does seem to be a huge story.

[underpants]

2. He regularly played at 250-255. The Mavs wanted him down to 245

Doncic had mostly taken the criticism without complaint, but it never resulted in a significant change in his habits.

"I mean, who gains weight during the season when you're playing 40 minutes a game?" a team source vented to ESPN last year.