It’s been nearly three months since the Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, and not much of anything has gotten easier for the Mavericks since this catastrophe.

Right before the Doncic trade, the Mavericks had a record of 26-23, and while the team was just starting to see the injury bug throw a bit of a wrench in their season, Doncic was poised to soon return to the lineup and keep Dallas afloat alongside Kyrie Irving.

That obviously didn’t happen though and Dallas fans have since had to endure a tumultuous PR run from the organization as well as a failure to make the playoffs.

The Mavericks were gifted slightly better odds recently and will be in this year’s draft lottery since they missed the playoffs, which is one of the only silver linings fans extract from such a disastrous season.

The Mavericks had no reason to miss the playoffs this year after just making the Finals, yet here they are thanks to Nico Harrison opting to trade Doncic and Quentin Grimes ahead of this season’s trade deadline, as both moves have panned out horrendously for Dallas thus far.

Harrison gifted the Lakers an immediate possibility at contention

Worse than just the Mavericks missing the playoffs is the fact that the Doncic-equipped Lakers are the third seed in the Western Conference with a legitimate shot at making the NBA Finals this season.

The Lakers were unable to get additional rim rolling and rim protection at the trade deadline after their move for Mark Williams was rescinded, but Doncic and LeBron James were still able to lead them to home-court advantage in their first-round matchup versus the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Lakers have one of the most stacked arrays of shot creators in the entire league, and they have a ton of length on the wings defensively with Jared Vanderbilt back in the lineup.

Unfortunately for Los Angeles though, a spirited effort from Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards in Game 3 caused the Lakers to fall to a 2-1 deficit in their series versus the Timberwolves.

This was Doncic’s worst game of the series, but James was also in takeover mode throughout large stretches of this contest, and Doncic had two excellent games to kick off this series for Los Angeles.

Doncic is fully tapped into postseason mode and poised to lead the Lakers to a Finals run if their lack of big man depth doesn’t end up compromising them, as having to deal with Doncic, James, and Austin Reaves defensively all at once is a handful for any team.

There are formidable competitors in the Western Conference playoff race that could handle up on the Lakers depending on the dynamics of the series, and even the Timberwolves could end up being that team in the first round this year, though the possibility of the Lakers being contenders isn’t unfathomable if they pull this series versus Minnesota out.

Even if the Lakers don’t contend this season, all signs are pointing toward James coming back next season, and it’s a given that Los Angeles will be aggressive in adding big man depth this offseason, which would easily give them one of the complete rosters in the NBA surrounding James and Doncic.

Dallas punted at the opportunity to build around a top-three player in the league in Doncic, and the Lakers are in a prime position to make a deep postseason run just because of having swapped Doncic and Anthony Davis, as the Lakers haven’t even gotten an offseason to actually focus on fine-tuning their roster around Doncic.

Money talks, and the optics of this trade from a general observer can be condensed into how Lakers’ GM Rob Pelinka landed a massive contract extension recently because of his management of the trade, while Dallas’ GM in Harrison, has been the subject of mass criticism and ridicule from all around the world.

Dallas won’t be able to move on from the Doncic trade anytime soon, and all true Mavericks fans can do is pray the Lakers don’t win a championship this year so this situation doesn’t look even worse.