Mavs Eyed Gutsy Trade With Timberwolves Before Sending Luka Doncic to Lakers

The plot thickens.

Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic on Feb 12, 2025. / Chris Nicoll-Imagn Images

On Feb. 2, not long after Los Angeles Lakers big man Anthony Davis was traded to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for superstar Luka Doncic, The Athletic reported that the Mavs did offer Doncic to one other team, though the outlet did not specify which.

Then, on Friday, it was revealed that the Mavs "informally" floated the idea of sending Luka to the Timberwolves in the weeks prior to the Lakers deal.

Per The Athletic's Sam Amick, Dallas' general manager Nico Harrison reached out to Minnesota before the swap with L.A. to ask if the team would be willing to trade 23-year-old All-Star Anthony Edwards for Doncic. But he was "promptly told no," Amick reports, while "the Timberwolves, league sources say, were stunned that Dallas was contemplating parting ways with Doncic."

While Amick does not overtly connect the dots between the outlet's Feb. 2 report and Friday's, it would stand to reason that the Timberwolves were the unidentified team in the earlier article.

It's an interesting development seeing as Lakers GM Rob Pelinka and Harrison are said to have not spoken to anyone else about the deal—including the players involved—until it was done. But skepticism has begun to emerge among both league pundits and players that more people knew about the trade ahead of time than originally believed, so this more definitive development from Amick stands to bolster that point of view.

One thing is for sure, though—this is the plot that just continues to thicken.

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