The Los Angeles Lakers just shocked the NBA world with their acquisition of Luka Doncic in a blockbuster deal with the Dallas Mavericks. They shipped out Anthony Davis in a deal that was kept secret from everybody—including the players themselves. But in their own weird way, the Golden State Warriors made this trade happen.
See, the only reason the Doncic-to-the-Lakers trade got over the finish line is because it was kept secret. Ramona Shelburne and Tim MacMahon of ESPN wrote a tell-all article detailing how the fact that no agents, players, or organization members were able to get involved and interfere. Shelburne also spoke about it on The Hoop Collective.
And the reason that Mavs GM Nico Harrison and Lakers GM Rob Pelinka knew they had to stay quiet was partially due to the Warriors’ inability to do so just one year ago.
Warriors failure to keep LeBron James talks quiet aided process of Luka Doncic trade to Lakers
In the ESPN article, Shelburne and MacMahon referenced the conversations between the Warriors and Lakers last season regarding a potential LeBron James trade. Conversations that were quickly nullified because of who got involved.
When the deal was thrown around, James’ agent, Rich Paul, was brought into the mix, and he shut talks down almost instantly.
“Pelinka and the Lakers understood,” Shelburne and MacMahon wrote. “Nothing could leak. Not a breath of it. They'd learned the same lesson many times throughout their recent history with blockbuster trades… last year's mind-boggling owner-to-owner discussions about trading James to the Golden State Warriors, which were ultimately shut down by James' agent, Rich Paul.”
While rumblings of James going to the Warriors may seem far-fetched, there were very real conversations surrounding the idea last season. But Paul quickly made them go away.
Had the Doncic deal leaked to anyone outside of Harrison, Pelnka, and the teams’ owners, there’s a good chance someone could have squashed the idea just like Paul did to the Golden State idea.
Pelinka learned his lesson from those talks. Harrison knew the same to be true. And while both men would have likely chosen to keep the deal quiet even if Paul didn’t nullify the James talks, it certainly contributed to the happenings of the Doncic deal.
The Warriors may not have been directly involved in the trade that landed Doncic in Los Angeles, but their failure to keep James talks quiet certainly aided the Mavs and Lakers’ process.
Now, the Warriors don’t have James, but James does have Doncic.