The end of Dallas’ Anthony Davis era did not start with talk of Anthony Davis.
The Washington Wizards and Dallas Mavericks had stayed in touch about lower-level items leading into Thursday’s NBA trade deadline. Eventually, the topic changed to Davis, who was attainable only if the Mavs could land each item on their list of desires.
They wanted draft picks.
They wanted to clear their books of long-term salary.
They wanted flexibility.
They wanted a future molded around rookie sensation Cooper Flagg.
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Clearly, a year after self-inflicted destruction, they wanted to start over. They had no other choice.
It feels uncouth to jam Luka Dončić’s name into each Mavericks-related conversation. Dallas fans, as well as the many inside the organization who never supported the ousting of its franchise cornerstone, have suffered enough over the past 12 months. But Wednesday provided yet another reminder of an organization that has been bleeding since last February.
Barely more than a year ago, the Mavs baffled the league, swapping Dončić for a package constructed around Davis. A mere 367 days later, Davis’ abbreviated story in Dallas, a vignette to forget, has come to an end.
No matter how unsatisfying, this is closure.
Compared to the prime-aged, perennial MVP candidate the Mavs gave up to acquire him, they didn’t receive much in return for Davis, who they zeroed in on a year ago. But once Dallas traded Dončić, a move then-general manager Nico Harrison spearheaded and that team governor Patrick Dumont backed, it put itself in a no-win situation.
This trade, the one that will send Davis to D.C. and recover a modest return, is a reminder of how little they received for a once-in-a-generation talent.
With the deadline approaching, and with Dallas and Washington discussing less-flashy hypotheticals, such as three-team trades that would appeal only to the nerdiest salary-cap geeks, the Wizards changed their tune. The two sides had discussed Davis before but only in an exploratory fashion, league sources said. This time, with the deadline nearing, the Wizards asked about the 10-time All-Star for real. The Mavs told them to make an offer.
The Mavericks weren’t dead set on trading Davis by the deadline, a league source said. The 32-year-old has another year on his contract after this one, and though he’s eligible for an extension this summer, a situation that could have become awkward had he remained in Texas, they didn’t plan to trade Davis unless they could check every box.
The picks.
The outgoing salary.
The flexibility.
And with their world revolving around Flagg.
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A year after the Dončić trade, three months after firing Harrison, this was their only path forward. To start over. To clear their deck of the ruins an individual no longer present had caused.
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For a few days, they haggled over picks with the Wizards, eventually convincing Washington to throw in two first-rounders that don’t stand to become particularly valuable. But at least they’re first-rounders. It’s one more first-round pick than Harrison received for Dončić. Davis’ trade value, in spite of his star status, had plummeted, mostly because of health. When he participates, he is still a two-way menace. But he can’t seem to stay on the court.
He’s played only 29 games since the Mavericks traded for him, a deal that Harrison executed because he worried about the health and conditioning of the guy he was sending out, Dončić, the seven-years-younger superstar. So, he flipped Dončić for a still-great but oft-injured, aging, clunky fit.
Harrison, who said he pulled off the Dončić trade as a solo operative, barely survived into this season. The team’s health, including Davis’, collapsed. Dallas couldn’t seem to win a game. And the GM who made what qualifies as both the most daring and most inexplicable trade in league history was gone.
And now, so is Davis, a surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer whose worst crime was being thrust into the NBA’s most toxic setting against his will.
Dallas and Washington have finalized the agreement. Davis, Jaden Hardy, D’Angelo Russell and Dante Exum will head to D.C. Khris Middleton, AJ Johnson, Malaki Branham, Marvin Bagley III, two late first-round picks and three second-rounders go to Dallas. And thus, only the following centerpieces remain either directly or indirectly from last season’s Dončić trade:
• Max Christie
• The Los Angeles Lakers’ 2029 first-round pick
• The Oklahoma City Thunder’s 2026 first-round pick, likely to fall to 30th
• A 2030 first-rounder from the Golden State Warriors that will convey only if it’s in the 20s
That’s all.
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It remains baffling. The Mavs went from employing a young superstar, someone ready to re-up with the organization on a long-term contract, someone who carried them to the NBA Finals less than a year before they moved him, to crumbs. And yet, given today’s climate, they fared well in Wednesday’s Davis trade.
Among the circumstances Harrison should have foreseen but chose not to was that the value of well-compensated players with, for lack of a better term, “warts” was about to collapse. Those archetypes — the super-expensive guys who have one or two glaring demerits on their report cards — aren’t sought after these days, not with how punishing this CBA is of teams whose payrolls climb high.
The market for Trae Young dwindled because he was pricey and defensively challenged. The one for Memphis Grizzlies’ guard Ja Morant has stalled. He may be an All-Star, but he comes with health problems and off-court questions. Darius Garland’s and James Harden’s teams had to swap them for each other. Davis, because of his availability, is in the same category — though, when he participates, he’s superior to anyone else on the list.
It’s why he’ll ask for big money this summer. The Mavericks knew the price of his extension would be too rich for them, a league source said. Throwing cash at Davis would have hampered a future they hope to form around the 19-year-old Flagg.
This trade is the Mavericks starting anew, a route most people around the team never wanted to have to take. Harrison pushed the idea of trading Dončić for months, against the advice of others in the organization, league sources said. His process, entering negotiations with only one team for one player that he targeted because of a previous relationship from when they worked together at Nike, was a catastrophe at the time. People around him knew that; some told him, league sources say, but couldn’t stop him. And within that mess, the worst possible outcomes have occurred.
All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving tore his ACL. He hasn’t played yet this season. The team lost too many games. And then lost some more. And then more after that. Less than two years after reaching the finals, it’s cratered to the bottom of the Western Conference. The fans revolted, as anyone could have predicted. Davis balled out in his first game with Dallas, then got hurt, didn’t return for a month and a half and hasn’t stayed healthy since.
Now, the people who didn’t make the Dončić trade are left to clean up the mess. Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi are leading the front office on an interim basis, though Dumont has given them the autonomy to do the job as if they were full time, league sources said.
Their direction is the only one that makes sense, given the unfortunate reality Harrison created.
Break it down.
And hope that one day, because their books are clean, because maybe they hit on one of these draft picks, because they already have a centerpiece in Flagg and a star in Irving, they can return to the good times they had with Dončić.