“Doncic weighs 275 lbs? Then let him weigh 275 lbs”

On February 2, a date that Mavericks fans will surely never forget, Luka Dončić was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. Since then, as we all know, nothing has gone right in a franchise that has gone from a finals contender to a disbanded team, at risk of being demolished, both on the court and socially. That trade, a mistake in NBA history, overshadowed the departure of Quentin Grimes, who was sent to the Sixers two days later in exchange for Caleb Martin, the forward who arrived injured and has just debuted with the Mavs.

READ ALSO: Surrealism in Dallas: post-Doncic missing Mavs

Grimes is 24 years old and Martin is 29. But Martin had a favorable contract for the upcoming seasons ($9.5 and $10 million, with a $9.7 million player option in the summer of 2027), while Grimes will be a restricted free agent. It’s easy to imagine, though it’s hard to get into the heads of those making decisions in Dallas, that the risk of losing Grimes in the summer played a major role in their choice of Martin—less flashy but more stable in the secondary rotation that had to help keep the Mavs competitive, a team that hasn’t even made an appearance due to their approach, which doesn’t seem particularly brilliant, combined with a biblical plague of injuries.

Grimes was the 25th pick of the 2021 draft. He was selected by the Clippers, who traded him to the Knicks. Over the last two seasons, he has played for four teams: the Knicks sent him to Detroit, then this summer, he was traded from the Pistons to the Mavs, and now the Texans have sent him to the Sixers. So he knows the instability that life in the NBA often forces, which gives him a unique perspective on two monumental disasters that have happened this season, one in the West with the Mavs and one in the East with the Sixers.

READ ALSO: LeBron injury timeline revealed

But Grimes is making the most of every opportunity, regardless of how it comes: “It’s tough. As soon as you start getting comfortable in a place, you get traded again. But you’ve got to keep your head clear, go out on the floor, and produce.” In the Sixers, he’s averaging nearly 17 points, over 5 rebounds, and almost 3.5 assists per game. He’s a good defender with a solid shooting hand, and he’s proving he can take on more responsibilities, so he’ll definitely have great offers this summer. In fact, he’s the kind of player that would be useful in the rotation of any team with serious title aspirations: “I have the reputation of being a 3&D, a defensive and spot-up shooting guy, and that’s how everyone knew me. But this season, since my games with Dallas, I’ve shown I can be more than that and can do more things with the ball in my hands.”

Grimes is no longer with the Mavs, but he regrets how things have developed in a season that started with high hopes after reaching the last Finals: “It’s crazy what’s going on over there, so it was actually a blessing to be traded. But I feel for those who are still there. We had a very close-knit group at the beginning of the season. I think we had a team that could win the title. But this is the NBA, and that’s how it is... there are trades all the time.”

The shooting guard, like other teammates and ex-teammates of Luka Dončić, has also come to the defense of the Slovenian star, rejecting the narrative that’s been suggested from the Mavs’ leadership for weeks: that Luka didn’t take care of himself and wasn’t exactly a model professional: “This is a narrative they’re trying to create about him. And if they manage to generalize it, everyone believes it. They say Luka weighed 275 lbs? But if he took them to the Finals, then let him weigh 275 if he wants. It’s crazy.”

“Grimes doesn’t like at all how things have been handled with Dončić, what’s been said about him when he left. He rejects the idea that his habits and preparation were a problem and says he always found him in the gym lifting weights or on the court shooting,” says Jared Weiss in his article for The Athletic featuring the words of the current Sixers player.

Cuban draws the line again

Another person who’s spoken up again is Mark Cuban, the former owner who kept silent in the early days after the trade but is now, in an interview with WFAA, providing explanations about his point of view: “One thing is wanting to trade Luka. But it’s another when you’re doing that—you’ve got to get a better return for him. And no disrespect to Anthony Davis, but I really think this would have been talked about in a completely different way if they’d gotten Davis, Max Christie, and four unprotected first-round picks.”

Cuban sold 72% of the franchise to the Adelson family for $3.5 billion. Now a minority owner, he no longer has a say in major sporting decisions. He says he wasn’t informed about the move before it was executed and used it to explain why he decided to sell the Mavericks: “People still ask me a lot why I sold the franchise, and I always say I don’t regret it at all. I didn’t want my kids to end up in a situation like this if they were the ones making such a mistake. Imagine if my kids inherited the team and did something like this.”

Finally, he also commented on the main issue that’s complicating things at the franchise’s offices right now: “There’s no one communicating things well. It’s not so much what you do, it’s how you explain it. And that’s their biggest challenge now that I’m not the one in front.”

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