NBA insider Marc Spears acknowledged this week that Luka Doncic's struggles against Jaylen Brown played a role in his eventual trade.

Trading Luka Doncic was a move that caught everyone off guard, but it's something the Mavericks had been thinking about for months before the deal. According to ESPN's Marc Spears, the defining moment was the 2024 NBA Finals when Jaylen Brown shut down Doncic to an embarrassing degree.

One NBA insider is blaming Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown for the Dallas Mavericks trading Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks are set to face off in Luka Doncic’s most personal matchup since entering the NBA. Leading up to this game, NBA insider Marc Spears shared new details about the reasons behind the Mavericks' decision to trade Doncic.

If the NBA redid the 2016 NBA draft, where would star Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown end up going in it? Taken by the Celtics at No. 3 overall in the draft that really did end up going down, the Georgia native has burnished his credentials nicely since entering the league nearly a decade ago.

"He is the reason why Luka got traded," said Spears of Brown. "He shut him down in the Finals. What he did to Luka in the Finals, shutting him down, guarding him full court, making it unbearable offensively,