Why was Luka Doncic traded to Lakers? These 5 conspiracy theories poke holes in Mavs’ explanation

From casinos and hookah to just being idiots.

Luka Doncic is back in Dallas as the Lakers face the Mavericks on Wednesday night, and emotions are still running high from the infamous trade that sent the superstar to Los Angeles. In one fell swoop the Lakers became contenders, the Mavericks faded into irrelevancy, and Nico Harrison cemented himself as the worst GM in basketball overnight.

Since the deal was completed on February 2 the fortunes of these two franchises totally changed. The Lakers have gone 19-12 since adding Luka, sitting at third in the West and poised to push deep in the playoffs. The Mavericks have gone 12-17, falling from over .500 when the trade was made, to now being 10th in the West. While a big part of the Mavs’ fall is due to the fact Anthony Davis suffered another injury and Kyrie Irving tore his ACL, it also underscores the despair Dallas finds itself in.

At the center of this are fans who still want answers. Why was Luka traded? How did something this nonsensical ever happen? The Mavs have offered their own reasons for the trade, mostly that they didn’t want to pay Doncic a supermax contract this offseason, and they believed his lack of conditioning and shaky defense held them back from true title contention. Some people aren’t buying it, which has made the Doncic trade a breeding ground for conspiracy theories. Here’s are some of the biggest as Luka goes back to Dallas for the first time.

Theory No. 1: The Mavericks want to move to Las Vegas, and moving Luka is a means to an end

Theories around a potential move to Las Vegas have been swirling around the Mavericks ever since ownership changed in 2023. The Adelson and Dumont families made their riches in Vegas through the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, and this led to a lot of assumptions that their acquisition of the Mavs was to move the team.

Ownership has publicly stated they will not move the team, but we also know that you can trust the words of sports owners about as much as a fox in a henhouse. Plans have fallen through for a massive casino resort in Dallas amid pushback from the community, dealing a massive blow to one of the primary reasons the Adelson and Dumont families bought the Mavs: To get a foothold in Texas.

If they can’t bring gambling to Dallas, then move the Mavericks to gambling. Trading Luka and tanking the team would kill attendance, at which point owners can argue that the Dallas market can’t sustain NBA basketball, and that could be used as leverage to have owners approve a move to Vegas.

Is this plausible? Absolutely. It was unclear if the Adelsons and Dumonts ever really had an interest in NBA basketball, and if their purchase was designed to lobby for a casino, then those plans falling through kill any motivation to keep the Mavericks in the city.

Theory No. 2: Hookah Luka

This tends to be the best-sourced theory, and it essentially boils down to Nico Harrison not liking the fact that Luka Doncic didn’t obsess over basketball 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In late February reports emerged that Harrison and the Mavs didn’t like seeing photos of Luka spending time with his friends drinking beer and smoking hookah. Harrison, who idolizes Kobe Bryant’s approach to the game, didn’t see that same mentality in Doncic — and that led him to trade him, rather that give him a supermax contract extension.

Is this plausible? Yes. It’s absolutely moronic thinking, but it’s a very possible reason Luka was traded.

Theory No. 3: Luka was already planning to push for a trade to Los Angeles

The second theory posits that Nico Harrison somehow got wind that Luka was going to force a trade at the end of the season anyway, so he moved to get ahead of the drama in the hopes of getting more in return.

If this were true then it’s not a bad move, but there are some big problems with this theory. Firstly, Luka had just built a new house in the Dallas area — which isn’t something a person does who is planning to leave in a few months. Also, it assumes that the best the Mavericks could get for Luka Doncic was an oft-injured, 30+ year-old All Star and some pieces.

Is this plausible? No. There are no signs that Luka wanted out, and he loved Dallas.

Theory No. 4: Business plans falling through put pressure on getting the Mavericks under luxury tax

Even with Doncic the Mavericks were far from a dominant team. They would have made the playoffs, but likely destined for an early exit in 2024-25. This theory is based on the fact that ownership didn’t want to pay luxury tax for a middling team, and that was compounded by having some business plans blocked in Texas.

Legalizing sports betting and casinos has been a hotly-debated issue in Texas, with proponents lobbying with all their muster to pressure state legislature into legalizing gambling. Naturally this would have been of massive interest to the Adelson and Dumont families with their ties to Las Vegas.

However, debate is all but dead. Members of the state house have publicly said they’d block any moves for legalized gambling, killing the potential in the water. With that revenue stream drying up it could behoove the families to look at pulling in the purse strings with the Mavs, and that would mean trading Doncic, potentially trading Kyrie Irving in the offseason — making the organization leaner in a rebuild.

Is this plausible? Absolutely. The Mavericks weren’t paying a ton in tax, but they still had a lot of commitments to future salary. A supermax deal for Luka would have only put them in the red more, and without legalized gambling it’s possible ownership put pressure on the team to spend less money.

Theory No. 5: Nico Harrison is just an idiot when it comes to basketball

Kind of speaks for itself, really.

Is this plausible? Yep. I mean, Harrison has made a lot of moves since becoming GM and almost none of them have panned out — so this would be par for the course.