Has this past month for the Dallas Mavericks been the worst month any team in NBA history has ever experienced? Between Luka Doncic being traded, Daniel Gafford suffering a sprained MCL, Anthony Davis getting injured in his first game with the team, and Kyrie Irving tearing his ACL, nobody has it worse than the Mavericks and general manager Nico Harrison right now.
It is just unfathomable to comprehend what has happened to the Mavs since they lost to the Boston Celtics in the 2024 NBA Finals.
This was one of the two teams left standing with the right to fight for a championship. Doncic, a 25-year-old superstar, would be the face of the franchise in Dallas for the next 15 years. After adding Klay Thompson alongside Doncic and Irving before the 2024-25 season, the Mavericks once again looked like they had what it took to be a legitimate title threat.
Minor setbacks like Doncic’s calf injury on Christmas Day and other players being in and out of the rotation limited things to begin the year, yet this team was still one nobody would want to deal with in the playoffs. As the defending Western Conference champions, Luka and Kyrie had earned the respect and the right to defend what was theirs come time for the postseason, regardless of their record.
Well, that right was stripped away by Harrison at the deadline in a move that has sent this franchise spiraling out of control and towards the bottom of the NBA. In just five months, the entire trajectory of the Mavs has changed, and the last 30 days for Mavericks fans have been brutal to say the least.
From protests over the Doncic trade to Davis getting hurt in his first game to the organization raising season ticket prices to Irving going down with his knee injury, everything that could have gone wrong has exceeded the level of total catastrophic failure.
No matter who you ask around the league, the Mavs lost this Luka trade.
Regardless of how they felt about him behind the scenes, and all the noise surrounding his commitment to bettering his body, Doncic was a five-time All-Star and five-time All-NBA performer through his first six seasons with the Mavs. He finished third in MVP voting last year and was the main reason why Dallas went to the NBA Finals for the first time since Dirk Nowitzki led them to a title in 2011.
Dirk, who spent all 21 years of his Hall of Fame career in Dallas, was one of the leading voices behind the scenes consistently supporting Doncic and assuring that he had the tools to be the next face of the franchise for the next two decades. Former principal owner Mark Cuban was another major supporter of Doncic.
None of this mattered to Harrison, who had decided that his team wasn’t going to solely revolve around Doncic. As a result, the most shocking, puzzling, and idiotic trade of all time was made, sending Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick that has massively depreciated in value.
Harrison made it clear he wanted to win a title right now and did not care about what the future looked like eight, nine, or 10 years from now. The only goal in mind by trading Doncic was to win a championship. In his defense, the idea of pairing Davis with Irving, Klay Thompson, PJ Washington, and the two bigs — Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford — made sense strictly when you look at that roster on paper.
Very few teams in the West would have had the size and skill to stop that three-headed monster in the Mavs’ frontcourt, and Irving had been playing some of the best basketball of his career on offense without Doncic being in control of the offense.
Look, Harrison obviously made the wrong decision at the wrong time, but his intentions of wanting to win a championship and going all out to try and do so have to be respected to some level. After all, winning is all that matters in a front office, especially for the 30 general managers who have arguably the toughest, most unforgiving job in all of professional sports.
Head coaches and general managers never have job security. One year, your team could be on the verge of winning a championship, and you earn yourself an extension as a result. The very next year, your team can miss the playoffs, and you lose your job. That is what many are calling for right now in Dallas regarding Harrison, as nobody can forgive the Mavericks GM for what he did.
However, those inside the organization side with Harrison’s decision to trade Doncic and virtually every move he has made since becoming the Mavericks’ general manager in 2021. He built a strong contending roster around Doncic through the years, and the Mavs made the Western Conference Finals twice through his first three seasons in control.
That was enough for Patrick Dumont, the Mavs’ newest governor, to give Harrison full say over the direction of the franchise. This is a decision that will haunt this franchise for years to come.
Can anyone blame Harrison for going all-in and trying to win a championship right now? That is the name of the game. Entering the 2024-25 season, the Mavs had increased their chances to win a title with Thompson’s arrival.
Whether or not you agree with trading Doncic and all of the “he said, she said” information that has leaked over the last several weeks, Harrison’s intentions have always been to win a championship. Unfortunately, injuries stood in the way of the Mavs’ ability to display their vision.
With this said, even if these injuries never occurred, Harrison was still held on a pedestal as if he had walked on water. Dumont and the high-ranking names within the organization praised Harrison after the team made the NBA Finals, league sources told ClutchPoints, leading to a control of power for the general manager.
Cuban would have never thought once about trading Doncic. That was his guy, and he never expected to see Luka play for another franchise. Unfortunately for the former Mavs owner, he held zero power in this decision despite his efforts to warn Dumont, Harrison, and others.
Dumont put full trust in Harrison. He had seen the moves made last season to add Washington and Gafford before the trade deadline — two moves that ultimately helped make the Mavericks a championship-worthy team. Even though Doncic is a great player that the organization respected on the court, his mindset was not what Dumont and Harrison were looking for to build their vision.
The only goal while negotiating this trade with the Lakers was to win a championship right now. What Dumont and Harrison forgot during their power trip ahead of this year’s trade deadline is that this team was just in the NBA Finals. Sure, Doncic would’ve cost the team a lot of money, but he’s obviously worth it.
Now, instead of competing for championships with Luka as the face of the team, the Mavericks will end up being a lottery team this season that misses the playoffs altogether. To make matters worse, Doncic is on a rival Western Conference competitor and may wind up seizing the 2-seed in the conference with LeBron James in quest of a championship this season.
Harrison was so caught up in wanting to win and get Davis, a player he had viewed higher than any other around the league due to his two-way abilities, that his judgment was clouded. With Dumont’s blessing and full control to make decisions for the team, Harrison’s will to win destroyed his reputation and respect around the NBA.
“You know that symbol of the snake eating itself, the Ouroboros? Think of that as this situation with Harrison, Dumont, and Doncic,” one Western Conference executive,who was granted full anonymity, told ClutchPoints when asked about his opinion on the state of the franchise. “Nico wanted AD, which is fine, but at some point, you have to draw the line in the sand in terms of cost. Rob Pelinka and the Lakers were probably laughing every time they got off the phone with Dallas because there’s just no way anyone would give up Luka!
“The snake eating itself without even realizing it was Harrison in this situation. It won’t be long until the snake swallows itself.”
Mavericks fans likely share similar feelings to that of many league personnel regarding Harrison and his future in Dallas. While Harrison and Dumont can’t be blamed for the injuries this franchise is dealing with, everything started with the Doncic trade.
As the season continues and the Mavs head into their final 19 games of the regular season, their chances of winning are gone. Irving will be sidelined with his ACL injury until sometime in 2026, and Davis’ future remains a major unknown.
