Lakers' sale just exposed sketchiest aspect of Mavericks' cursed Luka Doncic trade

As the Dallas Mavericks are less than a week away from the NBA Draft, the excitement from the fanbase and organization is as high as it's been since Luka Doncic was still on the team, as the Mavericks will be selecting consensus No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg after he impressed with an "unreal" pre-draft workout for the Mavericks just days ago.

Dallas wouldn't be in a position to add Flagg had they kept Doncic on the team, but it goes without saying the Mavericks completely lucked into Flagg, given their 1.8 percent shot at landing the No. 1 pick. Only time will tell if Flagg can come close to the level of production Doncic brought to Dallas, and Mavericks fans can only hope Flagg exhibits the same level of loyalty Doncic did, but an intriguing detail from the recent selling of the Los Angeles Lakers has prompted discussion over how this scenario and the Doncic trade could've been prevented entirely.

With Jeanie Buss selling the Lakers for a record 11 figures, reports have since come out stating she will still have basketball oversight of the organization for a number of years until new governor Mark Walter eventually takes over. This was reported to be the case with former Mavericks governor Mark Cuban after he maintained a 27 percent stake in the organization following his sale of the team to Miriam Adelson in 2023, but NBA Commissioner Adam Silver debunked this weeks ago, as the league never had such an agreement in writing from Cuban and it was presumed amongst league officials that new governor Patrick Dumont would have the final say on any basketball decision.

Lakers' sale proves Cuban's ill-sighted move is what spurred Doncic trade

Whether Cuban had a verbal agreement with the Adelson's and Dumont and it was never honored, or he was simply spitballing a lie to Mavericks fans to make them feel more comfortable about the situation is something that probably won't be uncovered for quite some time, but it's a huge indictment upon Cuban to have not gotten this agreement in writing, as it seems the Lakers have been able to do this easily even though Buss will maintain less of a minority stake with the Lakers than Cuban does with the Mavericks.

As Mavericks fans know all too well to this point, GM Nico Harrison took advantage of a closed-door situation and a weak basketball mind in Dumont to be able to pull off his world-wrecking Doncic trade, and it's already been abundantly clear that Cuban would have never signed off on this trade from Harrison.

Cuban obviously doesn't deserve the entirety of the blame for the Doncic trade, but if Buss truly maintains control of the Lakers for a few more seasons and serves as their active governor still, then Mavericks fans have to be envious of how that situation will play out compared to in Dallas, as Cuban could've completely prevented the Doncic trade in the first place by being more stringent and making sure he still maintained some sort of operational control in a written agreement.

Hindsight is 20/20 and Cuban would assuredly do things different knowing the outcome this simple mistake ended up prompting, but he should've never lied/stretched the truth to Mavericks fans about his agreement, as he gave fans false hope that something like the Doncic trade would never happen considering how he treated both of his franchise superstars in Dirk Nowitzki and Doncic while he was still the majority owner of the team.

With Flagg coming in and fitting Harrison's "defense wins championships" vision for this team and also being in elite physical shape, Mavericks fans probably won't have to worry about such a catastrophe happening again in terms of trading away their best player for a less than ideal package in return, especially given the financial impact this caused to the organization as well as how bad the fan outcry was.

However, while the Mavericks dodged a huge bullet of likely needing to rebuild once Irving and Anthony Davis start to fizzle out down the line, Cuban can't be spared for his role in spurring the Doncic trade and the near disaster it caused.

Hopefully Dumont has become more educated about the NBA since this has all went down and the Mavericks add another figure in the front office for checks and balances to ensure something like the Doncic trade never happens again, as it was an insane trickle-down effect in terms of the power dynamic of the organization after Cuban gave the keys to Dumont and Harrison, even though he claimed that wouldn't be the case when he sold the Mavericks in 2023.