Mavericks explored another trade before shocking Luka Doncic blockbuster

As we are just barely over 50 hours removed from arguably the most shocking and controversial trade in NBA history, the Dallas Mavericks organization and their fans are still trying to make sense of the absurd closed-door operation that President of Basketball Operations Nico Harrison made come into fruition on Saturday night.

The sports world was in disbelief late Saturday night when Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber, and Markieff Morris were traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick. Almost everyone analyzing this move agrees that Harrison enacted chief organizational malpractice with this move, as the ruthless and lightning-fast nature of him trading a 25-year-old generational talent in Doncic is bound to sit horribly with notable individuals around the league besides the Lakers and their management.

Doncic was even in the process of buying a new mansion for his family in Dallas by the end of February, as he was prepared and determined to call this city home for years to come and bring the Mavericks a championship. However, Harrison clearly had other ideas and he lacked professionalism by not even calling Doncic about this move or consulting him about his most preferred destination, regardless of how quiet he and Rob Pelinka had to keep the talks.

Harrison will never come out and publicly say that Doncic wasn't amazing for the Mavericks or that he's not a generational player. With that being said though, all the reporting on this blockbuster so far has proven that Harrison despised the fact that Doncic's weight was constantly fluctuating as well as the ripple effects that had on his health and conditioning, and Harrison clearly balked at Doncic's spurts of lackluster defense and tendency to argue with the officials for too long.

Toppin would've boosted Mavs' defense without sacrificing Doncic

Don't get it twisted those are all issues that Doncic needed to work on if he wanted to maximize his potential, but the Mavericks still had plenty of time to get through to him on those fronts before things got dire and they made a boneheaded decision to trade him for far less than he's worth, and the Mavericks and Harrison had the opportunity to avoid this scenario entirely with a far more subtle trade that Dallas reportedly was interested in before trading for Davis.

If it weren't for Harrison seemingly falling into a power trip before trading Doncic and only consulting one person in the entire organization (that being Mavericks Governor Patrick Dumont, who is still getting the ropes of the NBA and how it operates under his belt), NBA insider Michael Scotto recently revealed the Mavericks were in talks to trade Kleber and some change to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for Obi Toppin instead of massively gambling their future.

Toppin had been speculated by fans to be a player that Dallas should target ahead of the trade deadline just a few weeks ago, and it's without question that Kleber and whatever other minimal compensation Dallas would've given to Indiana for Toppin would've been 100 times less of a gamble than trading Doncic in his early prime.

With an All-Defensive player and a developing point-of-attack defender in both Davis and Christie respectively, the Mavericks are clearly better defensively on paper compared to if they traded for Toppin. But the Mavericks were genuinely only two decent role players or one starting caliber player away from being right back into the contender's sphere come playoff time if Doncic got healthy, and Toppin is an elite athlete and high-level defender who would've potentially even started day one in Dallas.

Toppin is averaging 10.0 points and 4.0 rebounds per game this season with shooting splits of 54.3/35.2/79.0, and while he is shooting slightly worse from downtown compared to last year, his role has been reduced marginally by Indiana this season and he very well could have seen those numbers take a dramatic leap if Dallas started him at the four.

With P.J. Washington developing in terms of his ability to can above the break 3-pointers and shot create, it provides even more of a reason as to why Dallas could've crafted the ultimate balanced starting five with Kyrie Irving, Doncic, Washington, Toppin, and one of Daniel Gafford or Dereck Lively II. That lineup would've possessed elite defensive versatility and would still have great spacing on the other side of the ball, not to mention it would provide Klay Thompson the opportunity to take on a Jason Terry-esque role off the bench.

Sadly, we'll never get to see this scenario despite Dallas' previous interest in Toppin, as any move Dallas makes before the February 6 trade deadline would likely be for another shot creator given the Doncic trade. Harrison has proven to be unpredictable in the wildest of ways once though, so it really wouldn't be shocking to see him use any player or asset on the Mavericks to trade for someone fans wouldn't even expect before this deadline, so Mavericks fans will have to wait and see what happens.