Trade Proposal Swaps Mavs' Luka Doncic For Victor Wembanyama
DALLAS —The Dallas Mavericks face a pivotal offseason requiring the necessary action to achieve a major bounce back season after going 38-44 and failing to even qualify for the play-in tournament. With Luka Doncic seeking to contend for titles as opposed to tanking the end of the season, the margin for error is thin going forward.
Doncic is coming off a historic season of production averaging 32.4 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 8.0 assists — joining Michael Jordan as the only two players in NBA history to average 32-8-8 for a full season. He earned his fourth All-NBA First-Team nod, which made him just the fourth player ever to do so before turning 25. He's as historically great as it gets.
Entering the offseason, the Mavs have "grand plans" to build around Doncic and to re-sign Kyrie Irving in free agency. There would be no desire to organically entertain a potential trade involving him, but that has never stopped the hypothetical trade machine from firing on all cylinders.
Despite already having seen proven success at an incredible level, Bleacher Report suggested a trade that would feature the Mavs sending Doncic to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for the 1st overall pick to select Victor Wembanyama. The deal would need to involve more salary but the two names involved would be the focus.
"The Spurs would need to clear more money to onboard Doncic's salary, but that'd be easy enough," Bleacher Report writes. "From their perspective, it's not the wildest idea to trade a player who might someday become a generational superstar for one who already is."
There was an acknowledgement that Wembanyama may not be a player the Spurs would trade under any circumstances. Additionally, the Mavs would only entertain the idea of Doncic being moved if he was to force his way out of town — making both sides of this swap more of a fun idea to write about as opposed to something that will even remotely be plausible enough to make trade call to the league office.
"Ultimately, Wembanyama might not be tradeable under any circumstances. It also seems a little early for Dallas to move on from Doncic if he hasn't already communicated a desire to leave. Still, if you're concocting a swap involving one generational talent, the only way to make it plausible is to include another."
Let's say this hypothetical did happen, there would be many questions raised. Would Kyrie Irving re-sign with the Mavs? Also, how far can you get with a Irving-Wembanyama duo? Which NBA Draft prospects would be a great fit with the 10th pick? It would put the Mavs in an interesting position, to say the least.
Perhaps one of the most interesting outcomes of this scenario is that Wembanyama actually wanted to play with Doncic. On a recent episode of "The Hoop Collective" podcast, ESPN's Brian Windhorst — who was at Wembanyama's draft party in France — revealed the basketball prodigy's reaction to Dallas getting taken off the board as a possible landing spot.
"Would Dallas move up? Victor definitely reacted when Dallas came up because obviously he knew that playing with Luka Doncic would be fascinating," Windhorst said. "That was a discussion that I had with his agents."
It would be illogical for the Spurs to jump into a rushed timeline for a superstar when they start from the beginning with Wembanyama. If anything, San Antonio should be lurking waiting for a future trade request from Doncic to form a transcendent duo that could give the rest of the NBA nightmares.
Grant Afseth is a Dallas Mavericks reporter for DallasBasketball.com and an NBA reporter for NBA Analysis Network. He previously covered the Indiana Pacers and NBA for CNHI's Kokomo Tribune and various NBA teams for USA TODAY Sports Media Group. Follow him on Twitter (@grantafseth), Facebook (@grantgafseth), and YouTube (@grantafseth).
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