The Los Angeles Lakers are just beginning to map out what their offseason will look like after they were swept out of the 2026 NBA Playoffs by the Oklahoma City Thunder. While the futures of LeBron James and Austin Reaves are up in the air, it’s very clear that the front office will be building around Luka Doncic one way or another.
Doncic just finished his first full season in L.A. after getting acquired in a stunning trade with the Dallas Mavericks midway through the 2024-25 campaign. The weight of this trade has continued to bog the Mavs down for the past year-and-a-half now, with head coach Jason Kidd being the latest guy to get the ax from the team. In the wake of his sudden firing on Tuesday, reports have emerged revealing his true thoughts on the team’s decision to trade Doncic to the Lakers.
Jason Kidd Supported the Mavericks’ Decision to Trade Luka Doncic
The Mavericks’ decision to trade Luka Doncic, less than a full year after he led them to the 2024 NBA Finals, was shocking, and the team has yet to fully recover from the decision. While the Lakers appear more than content to build around Doncic, the Mavs have since fired their general manager, Nico Harrison, traded Anthony Davis, who was the main piece going their way in the deal, and now, they have fired Kidd, too.
Kidd’s status in Dallas had been somewhat murky in the wake of the team’s decision to trade Doncic, but things seemingly took a turn once Masai Ujiri arrived in town earlier this offseason as the team president and alternate governor. Ujiri is running the show now, and he has continued to lead the charge to effectively rid the Mavericks of the stench surrounding the Doncic trade.
There was only so much Kidd could do to stop the Doncic trade from happening, as he’s focused on the team’s play on the court, not their roster-building process. According to NBA insider Shams Charania of ESPN, though, Kidd was consulted before the Mavs decided to trade Doncic, and he was reportedly in support of the team’s decision to move on from him.
“How involved was Jason Kidd? He wasn’t making the trade, but Mavs sources do believe that he had a level of support for that trade,” Charania reported on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
Lakers Remain the Clear Winner of the Luka Doncic Trade
GettyLos Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic
At the time of this trade, the Lakers appeared to be the clear winner of the deal. Everything that has happened, though, both on the court and within the Mavericks organization, has only confirmed the notion that this is one of the most lopsided trades in the history of professional sports, not just the NBA. Dallas went from being a legitimate Finals contender to one of the worst teams in the league in less than two full seasons.
While it’s fun for Los Angeles fans to sit back and laugh at the Mavs’ ineptitude, the team has to focus on finding a way to build a championship-winner around Doncic. So while the team has already won this trade by a landslide, the front office still has to work to do in order to ensure that it doesn’t put this gift that it received from Dallas to waste.
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