Doncic, who had dragged an otherwise unremarkable Mavericks team through the Western Conference, became the face of their failure. Dallas coach Jason Kidd was forced to come out and defend his maligned star, even though without Doncic, the Mavericks were a faded Kyrie Irving and a bunch of role players.

Dallas shipped Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in a multi-team trade that landed Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a future first-round pick. Before Davis is set to be the No. 1 option on both ends of the floor for the Mavericks, with the departure of Doncic, he will first have to recover from an abdominal injury.