When the Dallas Mavericks traded a future first round pick with top-5 protection to the Atlanta Hawks in the Luka Doncic deal, I’m sure everyone involved expected that this would be conveyed sooner rather than later. This feeling surely intensified with Dallas acquired DeAndre Jordan an hour into free agency, going all in on a chance to send Dirk back to the playoffs one last time, and make the Mavericks relevant again in the process.
Well, a lot has changed since then. In fact, a lot has changed very quickly and fairly recently for Dallas, who executed a shocker move just before the deadline, giving up extra picks and three starters in a deal for a rehabbing Kristaps Porzingis and some extra Knicks salary.