Mavericks' 'ambitious' trade target is an accident waiting to happen

Bleacher Report's Greg Swartz recently put together an "ambitious" trade target for every NBA team ahead of the 2025-26 season beginning, and he listed LeBron James of the Los Angeles Lakers as the Dallas Mavericks' trade target. While James joining the Mavericks would create one of the most star-studded teams the NBA has ever seen, Dallas should avoid trading for him at all costs.

Things would be different if James were to have been bought out by the Lakers this summer, as Dallas could've signed him outright in free agency, but making a trade for him is a risk that the Mavericks shouldn't make as Cooper Flagg begins his rookie year.

In order to make a trade for James work, the Mavericks would have to match his $52.6 million salary for next season, and they'd sacrifice all of the depth that Nico Harrison has strategically built around Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving for a 40-year-old LeBron James.

A James-to-Dallas trade wouldn't make sense

Swartz suggested that the Mavericks could send a combination of Klay Thompson, Naji Marshall, Daniel Gafford, and Caleb Martin to Los Angeles for James, and even though they'd keep their core of Davis, Irving, Flagg, P.J. Washington, and Dereck Lively II together in this instance, they wouldn't be able to mantain an elite bench like they have right now.

As things stand, the Mavericks have one of the best benches in the league, headlined by Washington, Gafford, Marshall, and Max Christie, and they'd go from having a top bench to having a weak group of reserves behind their starting lineup that would be led by Davis, Irving, Flagg, and James.

The risk far outweighs the reward of trading for James, as the Mavericks would be blowing up their entire roster to make this deal happen, and they have the future to look forward to with Flagg at the center of it.

Things could be a little different if the Mavs didn't win the lottery and draft Flagg, but their outlook is now much bigger than just the next few seasons. They went from having an extremely tight three-year timeline to being a contender for years to come thanks to Flagg, and it doesn't seem like they need to go target another superstar in a trade that is nearing the end of his career.

As Swartz alluded to, this would likely only happen if James got tired of playing behind Luka Doncic in Los Angeles and requested a trade, which is possible if he doesn't think he has a shot of winning a ring with the Lakers, but it would still come down to Dallas making a deal for him. There were murmurs that James had "curiosity" about playing for the Mavericks one day to reunite with Irving and Davis, but Dallas would still have to play ball. Getting him to Big D wouldn't be easy.

This offseason, when the nonstop James rumors clouded the world's timelines, it was clear that the Mavs didn't have trade interest in him. They were only interested in bringing him in if he was bought out by the Lakers, and their stance on this likely won't change this season.

Nico Harrison and the Mavericks have built a special core and one of the deepest teams in the NBA, and giving that up for a one-year rental of James would be a move that could set the franchise back for years to come. Dallas has quietly begun to get back on track with their continuity, and trading several high-level role players to bring in a superstar would not be worth the price.