The date was February 2nd, 2025, a day orchestrated by Nico Harrison that will live synonymous with Mavericks and Lakers fans for the rest of their lives. One of the most shocking trades I’ve ever seen in my entire life just transpired, so shocking that I was in denial for up to half an hour on, thinking that the trade was fake and that Shams Charania had gotten hacked. Shams had just tweeted a bombshell on Twitter that had sent shockwaves on Twitter late night after a Lakers 128-112 win over the Knicks “BREAKING: The Dallas Mavericks are trading Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick, sources tell ESPN. Three-team deal that includes Utah.” Now flash-forward to present day, where Nico Harrison is reportedly on the hot seat less than a year after trading away Luka.
This is Luka Doncic we’re talking about, one of the top 5 players in the NBA, perennial MVP candidate, a one man engine, and a guy that could retire right now and be a first ballot Hall of Famer with his NBA brilliance so far and his elite overseas resume as well. Nothing against Anthony Davis who will also be a first ballot Hall of Famer, or Max Christie who’s an intriguing 3 and D player as well. Luka is a once in a generation talent, a player that you’ll be lucky to see play in your lifetime, yet alone for your team, the Mavericks already got lucky by trading for him on draft day from the Hawks for Trae Young and Cam Reddish, and yet they still traded him away because of one man, Nico Tyrone Harrison.
This all stemmed from a casual coffee shop conversation between Nico Harrison and Rob Pelinka, it’s genuinely wild how nothing about this came out until the trade had been completed and now you see the infamous photo of them plastered around everywhere. The fact that Pelinka had talked Nico Harrison out of including Austin Reaves in the trade, and he’s been nothing short of phenomenal this season is just insane. It’s really the way Nico handled all of this, citing that Luka was out of shape, his defensive limitations, and the fact that “defense wins championships”. In 22 games before going down and getting traded from the Mavericks last season, Luka Doncic was averaging an eye popping 28, 7, and close to 8 assists a game on 46/35/76 on 58 TS% as well.
The Mavericks had built the perfect team around Luka Doncic and were just in the NBA Finals the season prior as they lost to the Boston Celtics 4-1. The Mavericks Starting 5 had their do it all PG in Luka Doncic, his robin in Kyrie Irving, two ferocious defenders in PJ Washington and Derrick Jones Jr with 3 point upside, and a perfect lob threat in Daniel Gafford who plays ferocious basketball and was really good in the pick and roll game. The Mavericks that season had the 8th best offensive rating at 117, the 15th best net rating at 2.1, the 18th best defensive rating at 114.9, scoring the 7th most points per game at 117.9, and the allowing the 13th most points per game at 113.
What makes this even more catastrophic is that Nico Harrison himself didn’t realize just how much Luka Doncic meant to the Dallas Mavericks and their fanbase, he mentioned that “he underestimated the deep love Mavericks fans have for Luka Doncic”. This just has to be a sick joke towards Mavericks fans who still obviously have disdain towards Nico Harrison, constantly booing him whenever he’s at Mavericks games, as well as other Dallas sports teams as well. Nico Harrison kept defending the trade that altered the landscape of the NBA, constantly noting that defense wins championships and also noted that the goal was to win now for the next 3-4 years, as he traded away a generational talent in the prime of his career.
The Mavericks went on to go 15-26 after the Luka Doncic trade, Anthony Davis got injured in his 1st game as a Maverick, and Kyrie Irving tore his ACL at the tail end of the season a little over a month before the Mavericks season ended. The Mavericks ended up barely making the Play-In as the 10th seed, beat the Kings in the first Play-In game, and then lost to the Grizzlies in the next Play-In game as their tumultuous season had finally come to a close. Some Mavericks fans had jumped ship, others stood pat, and the rest were just there still in absolute utter shock like the rest of us in the NBA world at what Nico Harrison had done.
The Mavericks somehow after all of that lucked into getting the 1st overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft with only a 1.8% chance of doing so, drafted sure fire #1 pick, Cooper Flagg out of Duke University. Nico Harrison had to be going insane as he had just traded away basically his whole entire franchise in Luka Doncic, missed the postseason, and still got a guy that many have called a generational talent in Cooper Flagg. Well the thing is, the Mavericks went from having arguably the best PG in basketball in Luka Doncic, to forcing 18 year old Cooper Flagg to play out of position at Point Guard as Kyrie Irving is still recovering from a torn ACL, and the newly acquired D’Angelo Russell was coming off the bench.
Cooper Flagg already had a ton of pressure on him after being heralded for so long and hyped up as a generational talent, and trying to live up to those expectations, and then here comes Nico Harrison putting even more pressure on him and playing him out of position because of a hole that he directly created. The Mavericks currently are one of the worst teams in the NBA, they also ended up making another horrific move by trading Quentin Grimes for Caleb Martin, who barely cracks the Mavericks rotation.
As of the time of this writing, the Mavericks have the second to last record in the Western Conference at 3-7, they’re 24th in net rating at -6.2, 29th in offensive rating at 103.7. At least for Nico Harrison, they’re 4th in defensive rating at 109.9. Unfortunately for Nico, Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis are still injured, and the Mavericks are only averaging a league worst 106.5 points per game so far this season. All while – the Luka Doncic led Lakers are currently tied for the 5th best record in the NBA at 7-3 without LeBron James and Austin Reaves being in and out of the lineup, and when healthy Reaves has been great as the 2nd option and primed to get close to a max extension this offseason.
Luka Doncic is also averaging a video game like 40, 11, and 9 on 50/30/79 splits on 63 TS% and pretty comfortably in the MVP conversation with his new team after inking a 3 year $165M extension with the Lakers in the offseason.
All while a bevy of injuries for the Mavericks, Luka’s new ascension, Quentin Grimes still flourishing in Philadelphia and Cooper Flagg trying his absolute hardest to figure out the NBA while also being forced into a troublesome task as being the franchise player for a team that is still recovering from trading away a guy they loved more than life in Luka Doncic mere 9 months ago. There’s a ton on the shoulders of one man in particular, Nico Tyrone Harrison.
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