Mavericks' Jalen Brunson nightmare officially clears Luka Doncic trade as worse move

Jalen Brunson completed the improbable on Saturday night, leading the New York Knicks to their first NBA Championship since 1973 with a 45-point closeout game versus the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, and this progression of Brunson's career makes his loss from the Dallas Mavericks an even worse value play than the Luka Doncic trade.

As infamous as the Doncic trade will always be, as well as how prolific an offensive talent like Doncic is, he has yet to win an NBA Championship, and his former teammate, Brunson, was able to beat him to the chase in this department. Regardless of how much Mavericks fans revere Doncic, it's hard to argue that his loss was more detrimental to the organization compared to Brunson, especially since the Mavericks at least got value in return for Doncic, whereas they got nothing for Brunson.

Brunson's Finals win makes his loss worse than Doncic's for Dallas

Just like Doncic, Brunson isn't going to win games for a team on the defensive end, but he's been serviceable on that end the last few seasons, and was able to hold his own defensively in the biggest series of his career versus the San Antonio Spurs, whereas Doncic suffered immensely on defense versus the Boston Celtics in the 2024 NBA Finals.

The Mavericks had their opportunities to nail Brunson on a four-year $55 million contract extension back in 2022, which would've been an absolute steal at this day in age, but they obviously whiffed in massive fashion. Perhaps no one could've seen Brunson being the Finals MVP a few years ago, granted he's a 6-foot-1 guard, but he proved all the doubters wrong, and his departure from Dallas has never felt more bitter up to this point.

The Mavericks and their new front office can't afford to make the mistake of letting a future MVP candidate off the hook, much less two of them. Brunson's championship as a No. 1 option is a harsh reminder of the dysfunction of the Nico Harrison era, as Harrison effectively lost two Hall of Famers within a few seasons.

Mavericks will have immense regret for letting Brunson walk

The Doncic trade will never be topped in terms of how dumb a move it was, as Dallas had no reason to trade Doncic, and Brunson's departure was more justified at the time, given he hadn't reached the level he's currently at yet, and Dallas was weighing the financial implications of signing him to a massive contract in the summer of 2022 or not.

However, Brunson's loss ultimately stings more in the long run, and there's practically no denying this based on the fact that he just won the Finals, while Doncic's constant injury-laden playoff series and defensive inconsistencies have prevented him from achieving this feat. The Spurs had quite the squad as well, and almost no one picked the Knicks to knock them off heading into the series, so it's not like Brunson and the Knicks had some massive advantage heading into this series either.

All in all, the Mavericks lost two generational players that were drafted in the same draft back in 2018, and the organization can attribute most of this blame to Harrison and Mark Cuban. Brunson winning the Finals is well deserved, and now Mavericks fans will forever wonder how many championships he and Doncic could've potentially won together in Dallas for a long time.

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