The NBA has been rocked in recent weeks by the blockbuster trade between the Dallas Mavericks and the Los Angeles Lakers, which involved the departure of Luka Doncic. In light of the trade, New York Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson shared his thoughts and named the few players he considers safe from any future surprises like Luka’s shocking move.
“There’s three people untouchable. There’s three people in my eyes, maybe four,” Brunson said during a conversation on The Roommates Show podcast, alongside fellow Knicks star Josh Hart. The guard then proceeded to name three of the players, saying: “Wemby (Victor Wembanyama), (Nikola) Jokic, SGA (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander).”
Immediately, Hart chimed in with his own suggestion, saying, “I have a fourth: Bradley Beal,” which drew confused glances and laughter from his teammates. “He’s not getting touched unless he wants to be touched,” Josh added, referencing Beal’s no-trade clause with the Phoenix Suns, which prevents the team from trading him without his consent.
The conversation then turned to a fourth ‘untouchable’ player: Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves. “Oh, my God. That’s the fourth,” Brunson said. “They just got rid of KAT (Karl-Anthony Towns). They’re not getting rid of Anthony Edwards,” the Knicks guard explained. Hart followed with: “And he has the ability to be the face of the league in a year or two.”
Brunson could not believe Doncic’s trade
The discussion about ‘untouchable’ players was sparked by Brunson and Hart’s shock over the trade that sent Luka Doncic from the Mavericks to the Lakers. “I think what occurred, the Luka trade, was so out of left field,” Brunson said. “We were at dinner at the same place, together. All of the sudden I’m just like, ‘Josh!’ And I look at my phone and we were both like, ‘Is this real?’”
In an effort to understand the reasoning behind the Mavericks’ decision to trade Doncic to Los Angeles, Brunson speculated: “It’s a head scratch of how it all went down. I never thought Luka would get traded without him asking for it. I never thought he’d get offered first.”
The Knicks guard then expanded on his analysis. “There’s a big question mark on it. It’s not that Luka and AD got traded for each other. It’s not like that disparity between them. It’s not that,” he said. “It’s how the Mavs got off of Luka and did the trade.”
No one is safe in the NBA
The trade between the Mavericks and Lakers has left a ripple effect across the league, with many stars now questioning whether anyone is truly safe from being traded. Recently, Philadelphia 76ers star Paul George shared an honest take on Luka Doncic’s trade, offering a similar perspective to Brunson’s thoughts on untouchable players, and agreed with the Knicks point guard on one name.
“For the longest time, I thought Wembanyama and Luka were probably the two most untradeable players in the league,” George said on the Podcast with P, emphasizing Wemby’s importance to the San Antonio Spurs, which he saw as comparable to Doncic’s value to Dallas. “Guess not.”