It’s a day that will live in NBA infamy: Feb. 2, 2025, when the Dallas Mavericks made one of the most shocking trades in sports history, dealing Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and LA’s 2029 first-round pick.
Relitigating the stupidity of the trade from Dallas’s perspective isn’t worth it. Enough has been written about Mavs GM Nico Harrison and his defense-wins-championships mentality, which apparently takes precedence over the have-one-of-the-best-players-in-the-world mentality.
What’s done is done. Luka is the future in Los Angeles, while he and LeBron James try and win the Lakers another title in the present. Davis, meanwhile, can now process things on a warm beach somewhere after the Mavericks fell short of the playoffs, losing to the Memphis Grizzlies in the Western Conference Play-In Tournament.
What’s next for Dallas is a conundrum. Presumably, the Mavs will run it back next year and hope that a healthy Kyrie Irving can pair with Davis to lead the franchise back to the NBA Finals. But what if Harrison shocks the world one more time? And if he does, could the Bulls jump into the fray this time?
Bulls acquire Anthony Davis from Mavericks in 3-team mock trade
Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report published a wildly unlikely yet intriguing proposal between the Bulls, Mavericks and Orlando Magic. The trade and its numerous moving parts look like this:
- Bulls Receive: Anthony Davis and Gary Harris
- Bulls Lose: Nikola Vučević, Zach Collins and Kevin Huerter, a 2028 first-round pick, a 2029 first-round pick swap and a top-five-protected 2030 first-round pick
Mavericks Receive: Zach Collins, Kevin Huerter, Jonathan Isaac, a 2028 first-round pick from Chicago, a 2029 first-round pick swap from Chicago and a top-five-protected 2030 first-round pick from Chicago
Magic Receive: Nikola Vučević and a top-50-protected 2025 second-round pick from Dallas (via Philadelphia)
Harrison may need to sprint to another country if he trades Davis only months after trading Doncic, but perhaps completely retooling and starting from scratch makes the most sense for the Mavericks. In this scenario, they take on nearly $40 million of expiring contracts from Chicago and Isaac, whose deal only includes $8 million guaranteed.
In addition to that cap space, the trio of picks from Chicago could become valuable depending on Davis’s health a few seasons from now and what else the Bulls do with their roster.
Interestingly, Vucevic and his $21 million expiring deal head back to Orlando, where the 35-year-old started his NBA career.
Grading the Anthony Davis mock trade for the Bulls
AD’s health is what would make or break this trade for Chicago. When he’s healthy, the 32-year-old is a top-10 player in the league. He can score at all three levels and is among the most versatile shot blockers and big man defenders the NBA has to offer.
When he was available for 76 games with the Lakers in 2023-24, he was named Second Team All-NBA, First-Team All-Defense and earned a spot on the Western Conference All-Star Team. He averaged 24.7 points, 12.6 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.2 steals and 2.3 blocks on 55.6 percent shooting from the field.
Add that version of Davis to Chicago’s young core of Josh Giddey, Coby White and Matas Buzelis, and the Bulls become a team capable of making a deep playoff push.
The organization doesn’t give up a lot to land AD either, likely due to his age and injury history. He’s only played more than 60 games twice in the last eight seasons. But Collins, Huerter and Vucevic are already on the trade block, so it wouldn’t hurt to lose them if it meant bringing back Davis.
The trio of first-round picks isn’t super painful to part with either. The 2028 first is the most consequential, but if the Bulls are as good as they hope to be in three years, that pick would land later in the first round. The swap the following season may not convey, while the 2030 selection is heavily protected.
Again, Davis’s injury history brings inherent risk to this trade for the Bulls. But his defense and rim protection are ideal for this current roster, and he would give Chicago a true No. 1 scorer. That would relegate White to the team’s second option, a role for which he is arguably overqualified.
But the Bulls would be more relevant than they have been since the Derrick Rose era, and their ceiling would take a massive jump from Play-In regular to top of the conference contender.
