How will Luka Doncic, Anthony Davis fit on new teams?

Time stopped for a moment at 12:12 a.m. ET on Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. The earth was thrown off its axis, the oceans’ waves went still and babies stopped crying (other than those in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area). The biggest trade in basketball history had just been reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania.

The Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick.

It was a move like no other.

Players of Doncic’s calibre aren’t supposed to be moved mid-season, let alone without a flurry of outside noise leading up to the blockbuster deal. But this was done in the shadows, and the collective NBA is still wondering how hard it has to pinch until they eventually wake up.

It’s the kind of deal in which the true effects won’t just be felt today, tomorrow or next week. They’ll be felt in 10 or more years, when biography writers dot their final i’s and cross their final t’s, when jerseys are hung from rafters, when championship tallies are counted and the dust from nuclear fallout settles. This is the move that will define an era of basketball.

For now, we’ll have to settle for analyzing the day-one impact and how it affects the Lakers’ and Mavericks’ championship aspirations this year and in the near future. Here’s a look at how Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis could fit on their new teams.

Doncic’s fit with the Lakers

The LeBron James succession plan has been a huge topic of conversation as the ageless wonder continues his battle against Father Time. Eventually, he’s destined to lose. When would the Lakers start preparing for that inevitability?

Anthony Davis had been tabbed to take the reins, with many wondering when the Lakers would officially become his team rather than James’.

Maybe it’s James’ nature — a player who functions so incredibly well as a solar system piece and a figure larger than the game of basketball, whose star power is almost impossible to outshine — but Davis, through his five-and-a-half years in L.A., never seemed like he was ready to carry the torch. He was certainly a massive figure for the Lakers, but when discussing his role on the team, it always felt as though the discourse centred around how he was a great complementary piece to James.

Doncic is not that. He’s a solar system unto himself — the sort of player you build around, not the sort you bring in to suit another’s playing style.

The biggest question of fit comes down to how he works alongside James, with the two superstars functioning as ball-dominant players who set the table for their team’s offence. They’ve raised the floor of their respective teams by controlling traffic and setting others up for success with the ball in their hands as opposed to away from the play.

When the Mavericks acquired Kyrie Irving in 2023, there was a similar question around the fit between him and Doncic, with both players doing most of their damage on the ball. The Slovenian superstar ironed some of those out, showing a willingness to let Irving create his own shots and run the offence, and the duo led Dallas to the NBA Finals last year.

But they worked because they took turns, not because they were setting each other up. Last season Doncic still only took 2.1 catch-and-shoot looks per game in the regular season and 1.9 per game in the playoffs. Regardless of who his second superstar is, he’s not the type of player to wait for the ball on the perimeter. He’s a conductor, and forcing him to sit in the orchestra, even as a first violin, would be counter-productive.

Which is why the Lakers likely see this as more than just bringing in a superstar for this season — it’s a move for a player who can be the face of the franchise for years to come. Still, for the time being, the Lakers have to figure out how they want to build the rest of their roster in the short term.

Like Doncic, James isn’t a catch-and-shoot player — he only takes 3.2 of those looks per game. However, he’s never had a point guard and table-setter of Doncic’s calibre to play with, and the Lakers have long needed an additional ball-handler to alleviate his load.

James has stretched out his range in recent years and is knocking down 37.9 per cent of his three-pointers. He takes 2.5 pull-up threes per game at a 36 per cent clip and 2.8 catch-and-shoot threes per game at a 39.8 per cent clip, so there’s room for that number to grow around someone like Luka.

The 40-year-old face of the NBA also remains one of the most emphatic drivers and play finishers in the league, and with Doncic throwing him lobs, could he also find comfort in playing as a rim-runner in sets alongside the best pick-and-roll operator in the league?

James is shooting 64.7 per cent on cutting layups, 59.1 per cent on driving layups, and has actually been less efficient than usual on pull-ups, shooting 43.0 per cent on fadeaways and 39.7 per cent overall on jumpers. It’s almost blasphemous to suggest LeBron adapt to another player, but efficiency-wise, and with the right player, a different role could prove to be the best decision with his current skillset.

The biggest downside here is, of course, defence. Even with Davis, a perennial All-Defensive selection, the Lakers sit 19th in the league in defensive rating at 114.8. Enter Luka, who is so bad on that end that he often gets hunted by opponents. It’s not enough that he doesn’t have the footspeed, wingspan or natural tools that great defenders generally come with, but Doncic has never been one to show an appropriate level of effort on that end comparable to his star status. He’s been a clear minus, but it’s one that teams had been willing to accept because of how much he raises a team’s offensive floor and ceiling.

The Mavericks found a way to surround Doncic with defensive talent, pairing him with Irving, wings like P.J. Washington, Naji Marshall and Derrick Jones Jr. last season, and rim-protecting bigs like Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford. Los Angeles does not have that.

Though the Lakers swung a deal for Dorian Finney-Smith — who played alongside Doncic from 2018 to 2023 — and just got Jarred Vanderbilt back from injury, they still have myriad steps to take before they’re able to disguise Doncic’s deficiencies. Whether they’re able to make those moves this season remains to be seen, especially considering their lack of assets.

In all, the fit between Doncic and the Lakers — and Doncic and James — is far from perfect. There are more moves to be made to get the most of Doncic’s skillset. But this trade isn’t about what happens come May or June. The success of the deal will be measured in titles, legacies and statues. There will always be a superstar in L.A.

Davis’s fit on the Mavericks

When you trade away the centrepiece of your franchise in what you say is a “win-now move,” you better win.

The Mavericks built their identity around Doncic, surrounding their heliocentric superstar with pieces that complement his skillset and make up for his defensive deficiencies. They signed Klay Thompson in the off-season as one of the best off-the-catch scorers in NBA history, their two-man centre rotation of Lively and Gafford gave Doncic lob threats out of the pick-and-roll and their bevy of wings are all connective pieces rather than guys you trust with the ball in their hands.

To trade away the piece that the roster was built around and insert Davis — who isn’t exactly a plug-and-play big man — into the equation is an identity-shifting decision. And though it should turn the Mavericks into a defensive juggernaut, the fit as a whole, on a team not built around him, is an interesting one.

Let’s start with the defence. Before Sunday’s action, Dallas sat 13th in the league with a 113.4 defensive rating, grounded by the wing defence of Washington and the rim protection of Lively and Gafford.

Lively is currently out with an ankle fracture and is slated to miss at least the next few weeks. Once the sophomore big gets back, the Mavericks will own a terrifying trio of rim protectors. On one hand, adding a premier defensive talent to an already solid foundation on that end should be a boon. On the other, the Mavericks traded to beef up an area where they already had a surplus.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are an interesting blueprint when looking at two-big lineups, with the East-leading squad succeeding with the pairing of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. Mobley functions as a roaming help defender inside the arc, capable of guarding more versatile assignments while having the length and athleticism to help on drives and cuts — akin to how Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks played alongside Brook Lopez. Davis, who has been vocal about his desire to play with a prototypical five, could fill a similar role while either Gafford or Lively patrols the paint.

Davis has the footspeed and advanced lateral movement for his size to be able to keep up with smaller assignments on the perimeter and shouldn’t have too hard a time adjusting to a less planted role than the one he played in L.A. When you’re one of the best defensive players in the league, it should come with a degree of versatility. Davis has that.

Offensively, the pairing between Davis and Irving is the focal point.

Irving is a strong pick-and-roll operator, scoring 1.1 points per possession in five possessions per game, putting himself in the 94th percentile league-wide. But compared to the 10.5 possessions per game the Mavs ran with Doncic as the pick-and-roll ball-handler, Irving will have some huge shoes to fill.

Davis — though he excels as a roll man, scoring 1.23 points in 4.5 possessions per game — can function as a more versatile big option than Gafford or Lively, who have more often than not worked as rim runners in Doncic’s offence. The former Lakers big is a strong post-up and spot-up player, capable of using his strength and guard-like skills to break down his opponents with his back to the basket or attack closeouts and get past slower-footed big men to finish at the rim.

However, since he’ll be deployed in more two-big sets, the paint might be more clogged than it was in L.A., as neither of the above-mentioned centres is capable of stretching the floor from range and Davis’s 29.8 three-point percentage this season won’t reliably threaten opposing defences.

At the end of the day, trading away a top offensive player in the league like Doncic leaves a hole in the Mavericks that no one can truly fill. Irving is a gifted offensive creator, able to get to any shot he wants in isolation, finishing the most acrobatic looks imaginable at the basket, and can create at a high level in the pick-and-roll when it’s asked of him. Davis is a physical and technical force, capable of putting his shoulder down and bullying dudes on his way to the basket or breaking down his defender for a spot-up look. But Doncic was all of that and more. Mavericks GM Nico Harrison better hope that defence truly does win championships.

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