Dallas Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont explains why he traded Luka Doncic
Fans and media excoriated the Dallas Mavericks’ decision to trade Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers last month. Finally, team governor Patrick Dumont explained the team’s thinking at the Bank of Texas Speaker Series.
Hosted by the Real Estate Council, on Feb. 13, the event discussed the Doncic trade and other business endeavors by Dumont.
In the video, he explained that despite the Mavs making the NBA Finals last season, they felt this trade set them up best for the future.
“Tough decisions are never easy and a part of leadership is looking at risk and looking at all the factors of a decision and being willing to act at that time and look to the long-term and not only think about the short-term or how it may be received immediately,” said Dumont.
The team owner focused on the fact that the team was struggling heading into the all-star break last season and needed a late-season turnaround to make noise in the playoffs.
“For us going into the trade deadline last year we were not competitive if you recall we were not a playoff-bound team and we were able to do some things to reconstruct the roster and enable the team to become very competitive and after the trade deadline last year we actually had the best record in basketball. Which was a big accomplishment and we got to the championship games and we didn’t win and so we had to decide how do we get better. What can we do to improve our team and so we looked at our trajectory during the season and realized that we did not get better but the teams that we competed against some of which we beat, did get better,” said Dumont, “So this was a decision about the future if you look at our roster today and who we have we feel like we position ourselves to be incredibly competitive against the best teams in the NBA.”
Dumont also addressed claims that the Doncic trade was done as a way for the team to move from Dallas to Las Vegas.
“No the team is never moving to Las Vegas,” said Dumont, “We bought the Dallas Mavericks it’s going to stay the Dallas.”
