Jaylen Brown dominated Doncic during head-to-head matchups in the 2024 NBA Finals.

The basketball world is still in a state of shock over the Mavericks’ stunning decision to trade superstar Luka Doncic to the Lakers earlier this month.

While the 25-year-old Doncic has quickly settled in on a Lakers team that has won seven of its last nine games, Dallas has remained largely mum on the reasoning behind trading a talent who led the Mavs to the NBA Finals last June.

“As we turn the page, I think it’s important to know that [Mavs coach Jason Kidd] and I, we’ve had a vision and the culture that we want to create since we’ve been here,” Dallas GM Nico Harrison said of the Mavericks’ decision to deal Doncic to Los Angeles in exchange for a package centered around now-injured big man Anthony Davis.

The returns haven’t been great for Dallas, with Davis not finishing his lone game with the Mavericks on Feb. 8 after suffering a left adductor strain.

But even though Doncic’s talent is hard to ignore, NBA insider Marc Spears believed that Doncic’s struggles in the 2024 NBA Finals against the Celtics sent a stark message to Dallas’ top brass about his viability as a franchise fixture capable of leading his team to a title.

In particular, Spears singled out Celtics star Jaylen Brown as the primary conduit that sent Doncic out to the West Coast.

“He shut him down in the Finals,” Spears said during an appearance on the “Cedric Maxwell Podcast.” “What he did to Luka in the Finals — shutting him down, guarding him full court, making it unbearable offensively — led Dallas to questioning Luka as the leader of the team, and questioning whether he was in shape or not.”

While Doncic was as advertised on the offensive side of the ball against Boston during that five-game series (29.2 points, 8.8 rebounds, 5.6 assists), he struggled defensively against Brown, who routinely attacked Doncic en route to several easy baskets.

Brown took home NBA Finals MVP as part of the Celtics’ run to an 18th title, averaging 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 1.6 steals per contest while logging plenty of 1-on-1 reps against Doncic on the hardwood.

While the Lakers now have their superstar talent in place for both now and in the post-LeBron James era with Doncic, the guard’s defensive deficiencies were apparently enough for the Mavericks to want to move on.

“Phenomenal offensive player, definitely like a showman that Lakers love to have but it had to be a shock to his system,” Spears added of Doncic. “I think they wanted him to be a better leader, more professional, better coworker and so I think people lean on the whole ‘was he in shape?’ part, it was much deeper than that.

“Was it warranted or not warranted? I think you’ve got to ask the Dallas people off the record while you’re there like ‘why?’ and they’ll probably tell you a bunch of reasons why.”