Mavericks' Luka Doncic trade just exposed 2 unexpected victims in new NBA rankings

Even though the Dallas Mavericks' Luka Doncic trade happened 81 days ago, it is still the talk of the town in Dallas and something that is talked about every day within the national and local media due to new details about this move coming out almost daily.

Nico Harrison held his end-of-season press conference on Monday at the Mavs practice facility, with the main takeaway of that 26-minute press conference being that Harrison didn't understand to what level Mavs fans loved Doncic. This caused limitless outrage from Mavericks fans, and some believe that this quote alone is a fireable offense.

Before Harrison's press conference, all eyes were still on the Mavericks, as they made the Play-In Tournament and won their first game against the Sacramento Kings, silencing the critics who thought their two-big lineup wouldn't work. Dallas ultimately ended up losing in the second round to the Memphis Grizzlies by a score of 120-106, consequently ending their season, and Mavs fans are missing Doncic more and more by the day as he is dominating in the NBA Playoffs for the Los Angeles Lakers while Dallas is watching from home.

Aftershock of the Luka Doncic trade has hit two Mavericks like a truck

Doncic is one of the most uniquely dominant offensive players this league has ever seen, with one of his best attributes being the ability to make everyone around him better due to his unreal passing and vision. He turns average role players into high-level role players all the time due to his spectacular playmaking and on-ball gravity, and this part of his game is priceless.

The Mavericks have seen the negative effects of losing this part of Doncic's game, as several role players were nowhere near the same player they were while playing next to him, and FanSided's new NBA 99 rankings show just that.

After Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford were both listed in the previous edition of FanSided's top 99 players in the NBA, they were both left out of the most recent update that dropped last week. This would have never happened if Doncic was still operating out of the pick and roll with them both, and both players have undoubtedly felt the effects of not playing with Doncic anymore.

Lively II looked like a star in the making over the season and a half that he played with Doncic, as their pick-and-roll game was unstoppable. Doncic's lobs to Lively II were a thing of beauty, and their chemistry (which began in their first practice together) only grew as time went on.

His chemistry with Doncic allowed him to emerge as one of the best young bigs in the NBA, but his numbers dropped significantly in the six games he played after returning from his ankle injury. In those six games, Lively II averaged 4.5 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, and while he was still on a minutes restriction, he looked like a different player from the one who became one of the deadliest pick-and-roll players Doncic has ever played with. This duo had the chance to be a force in the West for years to come, but Harrison trading away Doncic destroyed the potential of that ever happening.

Gafford, on the other hand, had an excellent season for Dallas, but just like Lively II, he wasn't the same pick-and-roll beast he once was. He was forced to create much more offense himself, and while he improved in this area, the game didn't come as easy for him.

The consequences of the Doncic trade will be felt for years to come in Dallas, and Lively II and Gafford may both be wishing they were still playing with Doncic.