The Los Angeles Lakers had loads of causes to leap on the alternative to amass Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks when the possibility was provided to them. Proprietor Jeanie Buss, nevertheless, revealed that there was one massive and shocking motivation behind the deal from the Lakers’ perspective.
In an interview with NPR’s “Morning Version,” Buss cited the Denver Nuggets as a giant purpose why the Lakers felt that they needed to make a transfer. Buss identified that the Lakers had been eradicated by the Nuggets in back-to-back postseasons, and strongly prompt that she thought the identical end result would repeat itself until the Lakers made a giant transfer.
“We gave up lots to get Luka Doncic,” Buss stated. “We’re completely satisfied we now have him. We’ve got misplaced the final (two) years in a row to the Denver Nuggets within the playoffs, and we actually didn’t have something that was going to look completely different going into the playoffs once more.
“Anthony Davis was complaining about the place he was being performed and he wasn’t completely satisfied. So I feel this was a optimistic for each groups. They obtained what they have been on the lookout for; we obtained what we have been on the lookout for.”
The Nuggets swept the Lakers within the Western Convention Finals in 2023, then beat Los Angeles in 5 video games within the first spherical in 2024. Denver followers have been actually wanting to remind the Lakers of their workforce’s latest mastery of them through the latter sequence.
On the time of the commerce, the Lakers sat fifth within the West, and confronted the very actual risk of squaring off with Denver once more within the first spherical. Since then, they’ve gotten scorching and at the moment sit second within the West, a stretch that included a 123-100 highway win over the Nuggets.
The Lakers additionally know that Doncic can anchor their workforce for years to return, and don’t appear to share the Mavericks’ considerations about his health. That was actually the large purpose for the commerce. Nonetheless, they clearly didn’t need to journey up in opposition to the Nuggets once more, and evidently really feel far more assured now that they won’t.
