Mavs gift Lakers the lifeline to end all lifelines

Sometimes, it's good to be the Lakers.

Just when you think they're stuck, just when it seems as if their magic has run out and they have no moves left, another gift falls from the heavens and lands right in their lap. This time, that gift is Luka Doncic, the 25-year-old megastar well on his way to being an all-time great with an already legendary playoff resume and five All-NBA first-team appearances to his name.

Here are a few players who didn’t make that many first teams in their entire careers: Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, David Robinson, Moses Malone, and Steph Curry. Oh, and also Anthony Davis, the 31-year-old big man for whom Doncic was traded. Also going to Dallas in the deal: third-year reserve wing Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick. I mean, sure.

It's hard to overstate what a colossal bailout this is for Los Angeles. Davis is still a fantastic player, but he was a walking injury risk even during his prime years. The team as previously constructed wasn't going anywhere meaningful. The supporting cast around the star duo of Davis and LeBron James simply wasn't good enough, and the Lakers looked poised to spend the last vestiges of James' career mired in play-in-caliber mediocrity. There was no obvious pivot; transitioning to a Davis-centric era as he entered his mid-30s promised little beyond a continued shuffle toward middling irrelevance.

Now, all of a sudden, the team's present and future have snapped into focus with stunning clarity.

The Lakers probably aren't going to seriously contend for a championship this season, though you can't put anything past Doncic and James in a playoff setting. Doncic is on the shelf with a calf strain that's expected to keep him sidelined for at least another couple of weeks. Once he returns, it's going to take some time for him and James to figure out how to play together. Even if they get on the same page right away, the Lakers will be hamstrung by their complete lack of big-man depth and their porous defense that ranked 21st before they traded one of the league's 10 best defenders for someone whose effort on that end ranges from disinterested to apathetic.

But in the big picture, they just added a guy they can build around well into the future, a guy who can seamlessly bridge the LeBron era to the era of Lakers basketball after he hangs it up. As good as Davis was as James' running mate, as much as he's shown himself capable of taking on a greater offensive workload this season, he couldn't ease James' playmaking burden to nearly the extent that Doncic can.

We're talking about one of the greatest creators in the history of the game. Doncic last season averaged 33.9 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 9.8 assists on 62% true shooting, then led the Mavericks to the Finals by ripping the hearts out of three straight 50-plus-win opponents. This has the potential to extend the twilight of James' career. And further into the future, other players will sign up to play alongside Doncic for the league's preeminent glamour franchise, the same way Davis forced his way there after James signed with a directionless Lakers team that had missed the playoffs five years running.

The move isn't totally without risk for the Lakers. They could struggle to break into the exclusive group of inner-circle contenders this season and next, which might lead Doncic to seek employment elsewhere when he becomes a free agent in the summer of 2026. The Spurs, for example, could carve out max cap space that offseason. Even with L.A. holding his Bird rights, it's possible Doncic would deem teaming up with Victor Wembanyama a more appealing option than sticking it out with a 41-year-old James before leading the team into an uncertain future.

That scenario just doesn't feel especially likely. Superstars don’t tend to leave the Lakers. They'll always represent a desirable destination for other stars with wandering eyes, especially with Doncic there as a lodestar. It's far more likely L.A. just landed a guy who’ll be the next in an interminable line of iconic Faces of the Franchise, someone who can keep it in the title conversation for the next decade.

This all feels like yet another life preserver for a franchise that always seems to get thrown one at the very moment you think it might finally dip underwater. Each time something like this happens, it adds to the sense that no matter what the Lakers do, no matter how badly they mismanage their roster or their draft picks or their balance sheet, things will always work out for them in the end.

Why the Mavericks decided to toss them that lifeline is a question that will probably be dissected for decades to come. But for now, as we sift through the rubble of this earthshaking NBA event, just one constant is left standing amid the ruins, the one certainty that remains in this wildly uncertain league: Sometimes, it's good to be the Lakers.

Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.