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NBA Trade Madness and a Successful Weekend
What a sports weekend that was. Tons of high-level NBA action, an elite UFC fight card, and one of the most shocking sports trades of all time. Things don’t get much better than that. Let’s cut to the chase and get right into the meat of the newsletter.
Here’s what we've got today:
Luka Doncic Trade Breakdown
Expanded Trade Deadline Coverage
Weekend Bet Recap and Monday Night Plays
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How and Why is Luka Doncic a Laker?
Late Saturday night, the news of one of the biggest and potentially most shocking sports trades of all time broke. The Dallas Mavericks shipped off Luka Doncic, a consensus top-three player in the NBA, to the Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a handful of picks. Your guess is as good as ours as to why in the world this happened.
Full Lakers Trade Haul
Luka Doncic
Maxi Kleber
Markieff Morris
General manager Rob Pelinka made out like a bandit in this one. A 25-year-old MVP-caliber player has never been traded before, but Pelinka somehow pulled it off. Doncic secures the future of a team that is on the verge of losing LeBron James to retirement.
Additionally, adding Doncic to the lineup gives the Lakers a very realistic chance to make a deep postseason run. Aside from Doncic, Kleber is a helpful piece that will play significant minutes.
Full Mavericks Trade Haul
Anthony Davis
Max Christie
LAL 2029 first-round pick
Truthfully, this isn’t much of a haul. Trading Doncic could have yielded around six first-round picks had the Mavs drawn out a bidding war, but for some reason, they didn’t seem to be interested in that objectively smart move. Instead, they land Anthony Davis, a single first, and Christie, a young, mediocre guard.
It’s hard to see how this move gives them a serious chance at contention. It’s even harder to see where Dallas goes in a couple of years with two aging stars and a middle-of-the-pack roster, one that could desperately use a young superstar to build around.
New Starting Lineups for Both Teams
Lakers Starting Five
PG: Luka Doncic
SG: Austin Reaves
SF: Rui Hachimura
PF: LeBron James
C: Jaxson Hayes
Mavericks Starting Five
PG: Kyrie Irving
SG: Klay Thompson
SF: PJ Washington
PF: Anthony Davis
C: Daniel Gafford
Other Deadline Bombshells
Sunday night brought on more consequential moves, although they weren’t quite of the same magnitude as Saturday night’s news equivalent of a nuclear bomb. A three-way deal between the San Antonio Spurs, the Sacramento Kings, and the Chicago Bulls landed two important playmakers in different cities while delivering a treasure chest of picks to the Bulls.
Full Kings Trade Haul
Zach LaVine
Sidy Cissoko
CHA 2025 first-round pick
SAS 2027 first-round pick
MIN 2031 first-round pick
Three second-round picks
It’s easy to feel good about this one for the Kings. Moving De’Aaron Fox is painful, but it was time. In return, one of the league’s most underrated scorers in LaVine makes his way to NorCal, and six picks are nothing to scoff at. It does leave the roster at a strange crossroads, as they have the top-end talent to keep themselves out of the lottery, but miss the depth necessary to be considered a serious playoff team.
Full Spurs Trade Haul
De’Aaron Fox
Jordan McLaughlin
The San Antonio front office did well to get Victor Wembanyana some help. Fox is an elite point guard, one who can shoulder some of the scoring load that Wemby has been tasked with handling all on his own. The Spurs are now a legitimate threat to capture a decent seed in the West and give a hell of a fight to whoever they face in the first round.
Full Bulls Trade Haul
Zach Collins
Tre Jones
Kevin Huerter
Their own 2025 pick from San Antonio
LaVine had to go, but this haul is nothing to be excited about. Three solid players and only one pick for a team that is clearly in need of a rebuild. One can’t help but feel that Chicago should have received more for parting with a player as impactful as LaVine.
Weekend Bet Recap+Monday’s Best Play
After a horrendous newsletter showing during the week, things started to look up after the Weekender. Ballers’ UFC picks swept the slate, with two even-money bets cashing and one underdog also getting it done. The Friday night player props weren’t quite as successful, but overall, it still turned into a positive weekend. Now to keep the ball rolling with a Monday night NBA pick.
There are tons of NBA games to choose from, but the matchup between the Spurs and the Memphis Grizzlies stands out. Here’s a look at the odds.
The Spurs are coming off of a tough loss to the Miami Heat, in which they played without Wembanyama, while Memphis eked out a close win against the Milwaukee Bucks late Sunday night.
Normally, the second night of a back-to-back is scary, but the Grizzlies have been excellent against the spread in this situation. Memphis is 10-1 ATS with a rest disadvantage and 6-1 in the second games of back-to-backs.
Additionally, Memphis covers at a 65% clip as the home favorite. Conversely, the Spurs have covered only 48% of the time as underdogs. It doesn’t help that Wemby is still dealing with an illness, leaving him questionable for this game.
De’Aaron Fox won’t be available here, and the Spurs will be without key depth pieces because of their recent trade. The Grizzlies look like a good bet here.
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