It's unusual for there to still be fallout from a trade nearly two months after the transaction is completed, but for a trade with the magnitude of the Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis swap, the ramifications will last much longer than that.
Anthony Davis may have been in Dallas for a while now, but he is still just getting settled in. The former Lakers star has just returned from an adductor injury that cost him 18 games and is finally getting into a groove with his new Mavericks teammates.
Davis may be still acclimating on the court, but he is settling in quickly in the city of Dallas, according to Marc J. Spears of Andscape.
“I’m great,” Davis said, per Spears. “I don’t feel it, but a lot of people have been coming to me and telling me they haven’t seen me smile like this in a long time,” Davis told Andscape. “Family is happy. Everybody is happy. It’s the nature of the business. Obviously, the first maybe 48 hours, it was just a shock because I wasn’t expecting it. Nobody was expecting it, so they say. But I know from my side, my team and my family and everybody who works with me, I wasn’t expecting it. Even when I was getting some of the calls [about the trade], I thought guys were playing. But it ended up being true and that first initial [emotion] was more a shock just seeing the position [we were in]; we’re in fifth in the West, we were rolling.”
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That doesn't mean that it was easy for Davis to get integrated into the locker room with his teammates. Both the Mavericks and Lakers lost a leader and a face of the franchise, so the first few days after the trade were understandably awkward.
Despite that initial tension, Davis has quickly built bonds with his new squad as they make a push for the play-in tournament in the Western Conference.
“I know what Luka meant to the [Mavericks] organization, to the team,” Davis said, per Spears. “So, it’s like, what do I say to these guys coming in as a new leader and trying to lead these guys to do something special? And for them it’s like, ‘s—, he just went through probably the biggest trade in [expletive] sports history. What do we say to him?’ And I wasn’t playing. So, I just tried to feel everybody out and just kind of let it happen organically. And now we got a super-tight bond, man with all the guys. So, I’m happy, man. Happy I get to play.”
Davis and the Mavericks haven't had the season that they were hoping for or expecting since the trade, as injuries have caused them to slide down the standings. However, the big man is now back and ready to help his team make a push.
