NBA: Re-grading the Luka Doncic, Trae Young trade

Let’s take a look back at the 2018 NBA Draft and re-grade the trade that sent Luka Doncic and Trae Young in opposite directions.

The 2018 NBA Draft-day transaction that sent the Atlanta Hawks‘ first-round pick, Luka Doncic, to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for their first-round pick, Trae Young, and an additional first-round selection the following year will always be a hot topic for debate.

The two stars will forever be joined at the hip; be it in spirited debates on your favorite social media platform, perhaps on that morning sports talk show that’s become your secret guilty pleasure, or even as far as heated lunch room disputes that distract you— just for a little bit —from how much you just want to clock out. Whatever the case, you’ll never be able to say one name without the other.

It will never be as simple as stating that both teams benefitted from having generational talents lug their respective franchises back to relevancy. No.

When the dust inevitably settles and either player decides to let nature run its course by hanging up the sneakers, it’ll always be “Who won the trade?”

Well, I don’t have a crystal ball and my predictions rarely ring true, both talents are remarkable in their own rights, but at the end of the day…I don’t know for certain how each career will pan out. No one does, we can make logical assumptions off the sample-size provided, but there are far too many intangibles down the line that is out of our power.

However, that’s also not to say we can reflect on recent history and re-grade the deal based on what has been shown so far. So let’s do that.