It’s looking more and more like the mavericks may have come out of this trade smelling like roses, the lakers are washed and the mavs have tons of good future prospects

The real problem wasn’t trading Luka, it was the lack of an actual return package that they received for him. They could have received a king’s randsom, but the Mavs didn’t even shop him around. They sent him away for the first offer they got, Anthony Davis, who is now off the team as well. They essentially gave him away. The fact that they received the #1 draft pick that they turned into Cooper Flag had nothing to do with the trade, they just got extremely lucky, and I’ll avoid putting on my tin foil hat. But they only had a 1% chance in the lottery. Niko can’t realistically clam in that the 1% chance was part of the broader plan.

I’d still much rather be the Lakers with Luka than Dallas with Flagg.