3 reasons why trading for LeBron James would destroy the Dallas Mavericks' franchise

2. Luka Doncic Would Leave

In that scenario, even if James stays for two years, Luka Doncic would likely be gone following LeBron's final season in Dallas.

There is almost no conceivable way the Mavs would be able to hang onto Luka entering either his age 25 or 26 seasons with no talent on the roster and no possible way to acquire it. There has already been considerable chatter about Doncic leaving with what the Mavs have now.

That means Luka would likely ask to be traded to a team where his prime NBA years wouldn't be wasted on a lottery team.

Considering Kyrie Irving's lack of loyalty to any NBA franchise, he would likely sign just a one or two-year deal to match Lebron's stay in Dallas, so he would probably be gone too.

For Dallas, they would be looking at a long-term rebuild with no star to build around. They would have money to play with in free agency, but that hasn't historically been kind to them.

Making Dallas an even less attractive destination, there wouldn't be a proven player left on the team to pair up with. Dallas would have to strike gold and sign multiple stars, all of which would be of a lower quality talent than what they already had in Luka Doncic.

Even in the hypothetical situation that Luka wanted to stay, the Mavs would be better off trading him to restock their draft capital and start a rebuild. They couldn't compete with Luka and some veteran minimum-caliber guys around him. Dallas hasn't been able to compete with more than that, and this situation would be much worse.