The Dallas Mavericks have made a few head-scratching moves the last few days, headlined by sending the better, young Luka Doncic to the Lakers in exchange for a still great (not as good as Doncic), older Anthony Davis and only one first-round pick. Davis’ timeline matches up with Kyrie Irving, but Luka Doncic was going to be the face of the franchise for the next decade.
Those concerns were only exacerbated when Dallas traded the younger Quentin Grimes for the older Caleb Martin on Tuesday in a deal with the Philadelphia 76ers. Who the better player is could be an argument, but Dallas also gave up a second-round pick, which didn’t make a lot of sense.
So why is Harrison trading the younger, better players for older pieces? DLLS’ Tim Cato may have the answer.
Cato reported, “There has been belief, which multiple team and league sources expressed to me over the past months long before this trade, that Harrison does not have a long-term desire to remain in his current role as general manager.”
Harrison even made a weird comment at the end of Sunday’s press conference when discussing the trade, saying, “The future to me is 3-4 years from now. The future 10 years from now — they’ll probably bury me and [Jason Kidd] by then. Or we’ll bury ourselves.”
For better or worse, he sees the Mavs’ championship window as right now and for the next few years, not the next ten years like it could’ve been with Doncic. So, most of the players acquired fit Irving’s and Klay Thompson’s window.
If this blows up in his face, and there’s a good chance it does, Harrison may get his wish of not being a general manager for much longer.
