Mazz: How the Luka Doncic trade might change the power structure in the entire NBA (including Boston)
On the floor, the Luka Doncic trade has massive ramifications. Off the floor, there is a chance it will have even bigger ones.
How, you ask?
We’ll let Jay Williams of ESPN explain.
During Monday morning’s edition of “Get Up” with Mike Greenberg, Williams suggested that the Doncic deal has ended player empowerment, an NBA era that reached unforeseen levels with LeBron James. When James left the Cleveland Cavaliers and joined the Miami Heat, he began leveraging his talent to such levels that teams became helpless. And when Pat Riley in Miami resisted James’ power, LeBron leveraged him, too, rejoining the Cavaliers before ultimately ending up with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Since leaving Miami, James has won two more titles – one each with Cavs and Lakers.
Riley and the Heat haven’t won any.
Before we go any further, let’s play for you exactly what Jay William said on “Get Up”:
So why is this all relevant now? While James was moving from place to place years ago, I asked an NBA executive whether anyone has ever leveraged his talent quite like James. I got a simple answer: “No.” And the aftershocks have rippled throughout the NBA ever since.
A succession of NBA players like Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have since leveraged their talent to end up in places like Golden State and Brooklyn, often agreeing to relatively short deals that allowed them to cash in and move on. (Some failed, but you understand the concept. Irving also left the Celtics.) Teams like the Nets, specifically, became hostage to their players’ wants, something that has always been true in a league where star players were responsible for an inordinate amount of a team’s success.
But where players like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant had the power to make their teams act, few ever left them the way James – and his followers – routinely did.
Just to be clear, James shouldn’t be blamed for that. He was smart and bold. He had power and he knew how to use it.
But now?
Of all the ramifications for Doncic, among the most significant may be this: the trade to the Lakers has initially cost him $116 million – and potentially saved the Mavericks from the same investment. Had he remained with Dallas, Doncic would have been eligible to sign a five-year, $345 million “supermax” deal that he could not have earned anywhere else. (The NBA’s collective bargaining agreement gives the Mavs this power.) But the moment Doncic got traded, that number dropped to $229 million over five years, an absolutely massive pay cut.
Now, does that mean Doncic will never recover? Hardly. He may have ended up in a better situation. But the point is that he didn’t choose this move. The Mavericks did. Dallas is under relatively new ownership – just like the Celtics soon will be – and the new owners clearly have no intention of simply doing business the way it has been done in the NBA. Doncic has a reputation for being lazy and out-of-shape – and the Mavericks weren’t willing to pay for that.
“I think the main thing for him is he’ll be able to learn a lot from LeBron,” Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis – a former teammate of Doncic – told reporters after the Celtics’ win Sunday night over Philadelphia. “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.”
If he wants to.
Get the message?
So why is this relevant in Boston? In the last two years, the Celtics have made huge commitments for Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum – and rightfully so. Both are excellent players and supremely conditioned. They care. Just the same, the Celtics are on the brink of a massive financial commitment – in the neighborhood of $500 in payroll and luxury taxes for next season – and the team is closing in on new ownership. The willingness of the new owners to pay players beyond Tatum and Brown remains to be seen. Many expect the Celtics to shed at least some payroll by the trading deadline on Thursday.

Is something big coming in Boston? Maybe. And maybe not.
But as LeBron James nears the end of his career, the age of full player empowerment may be going with him.