‘We were in disbelief’: How the Celtics reacted to stunning Luka Doncic trade
"We didn't think it was real," Al Horford said.
The Dallas Mavericks sent shockwaves through the NBA when they decided to move on from 25-year-old superstar Luka Doncic and ship him to the Los Angeles Lakers this week.
The new-look Mavericks, who are now anchored by a tandem of Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving, will visit TD Garden on Thursday night.
The initial reaction for many people who found out about the trade on social media was shock. Some players even asked if the reporter who broke the story, ESPN’s Shams Charania, had his phone hacked.
The Celtics also expressed how surprised they were during their roadtrip to Philadelphia on Sunday. Al Horford called the move one of the biggest in NBA history, saying that he would put it right up there with LeBron James’s decision to join the Miami Heat in 2010.
“We were just in disbelief,” Horford said. “We didn’t think it was real.”
These Celtics beat the Mavericks in the NBA Finals last season. Boston made quick work of Dallas, dispatching the Mavericks in five games. The decision to trade the team’s franchise player eight months later was not one that Jayson Tatum would have predicted.
“Didn’t expect it,” Tatum said with a shrug. “I’m certain most of us (didn’t). So, it was shocking news to me.”
Doncic’s defense was a significant concern in the series, prompting coach Jayson Kidd to say that the Celtics had a “bullseye” on his chest as Boston exploited Doncic’s limitations at guarding the pick and roll.
However, Doncic is one of the most prolific scorers in the league and he is young enough to set the Lakers up for years to come. He has made five consecutive All-NBA First teams and he won the scoring title last season. Dallas made the playoffs in four of his first six seasons with a pair of Western Conference Finals appearances along the way.
One of the issues that reportedly was a factor in the trade was Doncic’s conditioning. Now he’ll have the opportunity to learn from one of the most well-conditioned athletes in the sport in James.
“LeBron’s a big fan of Luka’s and Luka has obviously played a lot of basketball in his career, but he’s still only 25 years old,” Porzingis said, per Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. “So I think the main thing for him is he’ll be able to learn a lot from LeBron. That could really benefit his career and there’s somebody that, how he takes care of his body, the length of his career and all this, I think there’s a lot of things he’ll be able to learn if he wants to.”
While the players expressed their surprise about the move, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla opened his pregame press conference by requesting that reporters refrain from asking him about the trade because he didn’t care.
But, as the Lakers reload in hopes of tying the Celtics’ record for most NBA titles, there is sure to be plenty of interest in how far Doncic can take them. Meanwhile, Davis will provide an instant defensive upgrade to a Mavericks team that still feels like it is in a spot to contend.
“I think that he will be probably just featured a lot more in everything that they’re trying to do,” Horford said. “Looking from afar, I’ve always heard that he wants a big man next to him. And now he has two really good players in (Daniel) Gafford and (Dereck) Lively.
“So guys that can really take pressure off of him, and it’s something that I think for him it’s going to be very good. And then him working with Kyrie (Irving) and that part of it is going to be really good for them.”
Second-year forward Jordan Walsh is a Dallas native. The trade is “all anybody’s been talking about,” he said.
“It definitely threw me for a loop,” Walsh said, per The Athletic’s Jay King. “I feel like guys around the league are now thinking, like, if Luka can get traded, then anybody can. So I feel like everybody’s a little bit more on their toes, a little bit on their p’s and q’s, trying to make sure that they last or whatever. But it definitely shifted the energy in the league.”
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