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We’re less than 36 hours removed and it’s still difficult to process.
On Saturday night, the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers sent literal shockwaves around the NBA. They agreed to a three-team, six-player trade that sent Anthony Davis to the Mavericks for superstar guard Luka Doncic.
Multiple players and pundits speculated whether or not ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania, who first reported the trade, was hacked. That alone should indicate how seismic the deal was and, in Dallas’ case, how confusing and heartbreaking.
Less than 12 hours after the aftermath, Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison stood in front of a room full of local reporters Sunday and delivered an incomprehensibly bad press conference, attempting to justify a move that all but detonated the Mavericks’ future.
His initial premise behind trading Doncic for Davis was “that defense wins championships,” according to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. He also said that “getting an All-Defensive center and an All-NBA player with a defensive mindset gives us a better chance,” while maintaining the belief that Dallas can “win now and in the future.”
Harrison doubled down Sunday morning, telling The Dallas Morning News that they wanted to get ahead of his possible supermax, which he would have been eligible to sign this summer.
You could poll 29 other general managers about whether they would sign Doncic to a supermax when he was eligible. Maybe one or two agree, but a large percentage–if not all–of them likely say yes. He carried the Dallas Mavericks to their first NBA Finals in over a decade after leading the NBA in scoring last year. You could argue that Doncic hasn’t reached his physical prime and still averaged 31.6 points, 9.0 rebounds and 8.9 assists on 48.0/36.1/75.8 shooting splits over his previous three seasons.
Harrison followed up by openly admitting that he only talked to Rob Pelinka about trading Luka Doncic without exploring the market.
While trading Doncic in it of itself is a bold, unthinkable concept, blankly trading the franchise icon without venturing into what you can get is organizational malpractice. It’s short-sighted, illogical and insanity, especially since we’re mere months removed from Mikal Bridges commanding five first-round picks.
Harrison also admitted Sunday that he didn’t tell head coach Jason Kidd about the decision before making the decision–and the proposition of doing the deal made new owner Patrick Dumont laugh at him.
One thing was clear: Kidd, the lamest of ducks who was hung out to dry Sunday, was not laughing. He was doing anything but.
Nevermind completely avoiding to venture the market, trading your franchise away and having the owner laugh in your face about it, Harrison had the cajones to close the presser talking about the future of the organization:
“The future to me is 3-4 years from now,” he said, according to Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor. “The future 10 years from now–they’ll probably bury me and [Jason Kidd] by then. Or we’ll bury ourselves.”
Three years from now, Anthony Davis will be 34-years-old turning 35; Doncic will be 28. The future is unknown 10 years from now, but you may have buried yourself far sooner 10 years from now. Shoot, 10 months from now may be the true answer–perhaps sooner, depending on how the rest of the season pans out.
Luka Doncic was drafted to be your future. He was the guy who replaced Dirk Nowitzki as the franchise icon, and there was zero indication that he didn’t like the city or organization. He rose from a top-3 pick to a top-3 player–and you built a team that was designed to compete around him. That was the sole reason why you earned a multi-year extension. None of this is to diminish Davis’ skillset, but why trade away Doncic instead of continuing to try and re-tool around him?
Nico Harrison trading Doncic in the dark without informing anyone is openly spitting on the fanbase and superstar who carried the franchise to its first NBA Finals in over a decade. It’s indefensible, insulting and shows Harrison’s reach is too far beyond his reach, which is why this is organizational malpractice to the nth degree.
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