With the 2025 NBA Trade Deadline just days away, plenty of teams, including the Milwaukee Bucks, are rumored to be scouring the market for big fish targets.
Another team involved in those rumors was the Los Angeles Lakers, as they are always in the market for another star. Well, while many people were sleeping, they went out and landed one, and it was so surprising that NBA fans across the globe thought that the insiders reporting it were hacked initially. However, there was no fabrication. This deal legitimately went down.
As reported by ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania, Luka Doncic has been traded to the Lakers, while Anthony Davis is heading to the Dallas Mavericks. There are plenty of other moving parts in the deal, including a first-round pick going to Dallas, but the main parts involve Doncic and Davis, two stars who were foundational pieces for their respective franchises.
Rightfully, players took the social media to showcase the shock in the aftermath of one of the NBA's best getting moved, and Giannis Antetokounmpo was among them.
Giannis Antetokounmpo reacts as Luka Doncic gets traded to Lakers
The Greek Freak kept it short and simple, dropping a pair of emojis to (in all likelihood) voice his thoughts on the blockbuster deal that went down in the middle of the night.
🥶🌎
— Giannis Antetokounmpo (@Giannis_An34) February 2, 2025
Cold world. Cold world, indeed. Not only were fans blindsided by the trade, but reports indicate that the players involved were also shocked. No one aside from the general managers ever thought this was possible, but it did.
Doncic has been the face of the Mavericks for years now and took them to the NBA Finals last year. It felt like he had "lifelong Maverick" written all over him. Davis helped the Los Angeles Lakers win a ring in 2020 alongside LeBron James. As the saying goes, the NBA is a business, and this is one of the most prominent examples of it in recent memory.
This could be the first significant domino to fall leading up to the deadline. Whether it's Jimmy Butler, Zach LaVine or De'Aaron Fox, there are plenty of prominent names rumored to be available who may relocate over the next few days. Time will tell just how involved the Milwaukee Bucks may be in their pursuit of roster upgrades, but it would be shocking if they pulled off anything close to this trade.
Stay tuned for more Milwaukee Bucks analysis.