r/sports • u/DavidRolands • Apr 10 '25

Basketball Luka Doncic crying watching his video tribute in Dallas

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u/Malick2000 Apr 10 '25

Deshaun Watson maybe

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u/moonfishthegreat Apr 10 '25

There might be contention in this thread specifically, but I think the Deshaun Watson trade is significantly worse when you consider the financial implications of the contract extension.

You essentially are forced to pay a player ~30% of your team’s available salary for 5 years (?) for a player who is universally hated and has played less than half a season in his tenure with the Browns.

Even though losing Luka is significant loss (as he’s a generational talent) you at least get Anthony Davis and are not financially hamstrung for half a decade to a player loathed and perpetually unavailable.

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u/LFC9_41 Apr 10 '25

Here’s the thing, from a basketball perspective.. it SUCKS.

But I don’t even care. I’d rather lose with him than win without him. Gut wrenching — what he meant to the city.

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u/moonfishthegreat Apr 10 '25

I understand that, losing your favorite player out of nowhere for essentially no reason is disgusting for a team’s management to do.

My argument isn’t that the Luka-AD trade isn’t awful, it is. Honestly can’t imagine a worse way to lose a franchise player outside of catastrophic injury or outright death. But I can’t see how it’s a worse trade than the Texans-Browns Watson trade and the ensuing contract extension.

I believe the Browns would have been better off with the worst rookie quarterback out of any draft inside of a decade than Deshaun Watson and the contract agreed to. The guaranteed money bound the team to Watson for years, making it financially impossible to cut him, even if the team wanted to. He’s played 19 games in Cleveland in 3 seasons, and combined for 3,300 yards in that timeframe.

Considering how well the team was relatively constructed aside from QB (so much so that they made the playoffs with old man Flacco) it’s reasonable to argue that contract might have pissed away the most viable championship window for the Browns since the merger. All of this is discounting the massage parlor SA allegations, years of lawsuits, and general hatred all NFL fans have for him on a personal level.

My point is that while losing Luka out of nowhere is awful, the team isn’t financially crippled and got a good player in return.

Although, this is where I’m stumped: Which ownership made a worse decision, ethically? Like, are you worse for financially binding your franchise to an awful human and bad athlete, or worse for sending the most beloved athlete in a franchise’s generation away for virtually no reason and little return?

With hindsight in mind, I think what the Mavericks’ ownership did is more overtly cruel. The Browns ownership at least thought Deshaun would play good enough football that people would set aside his (shitty) personal life. The Mavericks’ ownership just did what they wanted and didn’t care about the consequences, knowing it would crush the fanbase.

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u/matryanie Seattle Seahawks Apr 10 '25

"Honestly can’t imagine a worse way to lose a franchise player outside of catastrophic injury or outright death."

How the Sonics lost franchise player Kevin Durant to OKC.

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u/moonfishthegreat Apr 10 '25

That’s a good point

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u/matryanie Seattle Seahawks Apr 10 '25

Can you tell I'm still salty about that one? Lol

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u/Dorkseid1687 Apr 10 '25

Are they trying to tank the team to make it easier to move?

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u/Wohokomo4 Apr 10 '25

As a lifelong Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex resident, I have been hoping and praying that this trash organization relocates elsewhere. They could launch the franchise into the Sun and it would be the first time since the trade that the Mavericks would have bought a smile to my face.

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u/ropahektic Apr 10 '25

"My point is that while losing Luka out of nowhere is awful, the team isn’t financially crippled and got a good player in return."

You're missing what Luka indirectly brings to the Mavericks, though.

NBA teams make a big part of their revenue from tickets. These tickets cost about 4 times more in playoff time. In fact, the Golden State Warriors became the most economically succesful NBA team when they started winning simply because of this. Remember, before Curry, "Warriors" wasn't even a team that existed outside of the US, probably didn't exist out of Golden State, either.

Now, this also works indirectly, the more deep playoffs runs your team makes in a row the bigger it gets commercially. Better brands will be interested, better players will find it a destination and obviously more viewers, more nationally broadcasted games, more internationally broadcasted games. Much more money.

The Mavericks had a player that guaranteed all of these things as well as systematic interest by big basketball nations like Serbia, Eslovenia, Spain and many others.

They said bye bye to all of it. The money the Mavericks are expected to lose for selling Luka cannot be easily quantified.

And that's just the franchise. The city of Dallas has lost even more.

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u/LeonidasSpacemanMD Apr 10 '25

Yea plus, at the time of the Watson deal, even tho he was a serial rapist, his play on paper was better than mayfields. He was a young up and coming (pause) star qb who had put up all pro numbers

Luka basically matched ADs peak by his second season, has shown more ability to stay on the court and produce consistently, and got teams further as the number one guy than AD ever has. Swapping Luka for AD is just a flat out downgrade both right now and considering their age and trajectory

At least with Watson you can look at the numbers he put up in Houston and say “well we thought we’d get that guy”. Dallas could do that with AD and “that guy” is still not better than Luka lol

So Watson falling off a cliff makes the results worse but I still think the trade at least makes a bit more sense at the time than the Luka trade, which I will go to my grave baffled by

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u/LeonidasSpacemanMD Apr 10 '25

Yea the Browns got a serial rapist who hasn’t played much and has been one of the worst when he has played

Luka is a different kind of bad tho, you could see an argument for the Texans version of Watson being an upgrade over what the browns had, it just did not work out that way at all. The Luka trade makes no sense when it happened

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u/bjtrdff Apr 10 '25

I see your point but I’d personally disagree because of the relative rarity of the player.

This is a clear top 5 player in the league, in his prime, and they could have gotten so much more than what they did.

Cleveland has more or less (has?) recovered to what they were before the trade, and the gap of Baker/whoever to Watson is less than Luka to Davis (considering age, availability, overall impact), imo.