Nico Harrison’s short-term plan for the Mavericks is already blowing up in his face

Barely a month ago, the Dallas Mavericks pulled a dumbfounding move in trading superstar Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers for a minuscule package centered around Anthony Davis. The day immediately following the news, Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison held a press conference to discuss the deal that is still sending shockwaves throughout the league.

Fans searched for contrition and reassurance in Harrison’s words. At the very least, a credible explanation as to why the franchise traded away a 26-year-old generational talent who is fresh off leading that exact team to the NBA Finals just nine months earlier. Instead, Harrison hammered on the idea that “defense wins championships,” subtlety jabbing Dončić by saying Davis “added” to the culture of what he and the Mavericks were trying to build.

Rumors and reports have been non-stop as to the reasoning behind Dallas’ decision, which have mostly been aimed at tearing down Dončić as a player, calling into question his commitment to staying in shape, his failure as a lockdown defender and his penchant for enjoying his free time by drinking beer — as if every other Hall of Fame player in league history treated their body like a temple.

Both Harrison and Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont have used the work ethic of Kobe Bryant and his “Mamba Mentality” motto as the standard of what they want out of their players going forward, something that, according to both of them, Dončić did not fit into.

But even putting aside the flimsy reasons as to why Harrison decided to pull the trigger on this deal, the return doesn’t make much sense. Davis is one of the best defenders in the league, and is a top 10 offensive player himself, but he’s also on the wrong side of 30 with an injury history that reads as long as a CVS receipt. By swapping the two players, the Mavericks are essentially mortgaging their future, something that Harrison has made clear that he’s doesn’t care about.

“The future to me is three to four years from now,” Harrison said the day after the trade. “The future ten years from now — they’ll probably bury me and [Mavericks coach Jason Kidd] by then. Or we’ll bury ourselves.”

Well, grab a shovel and start digging. It’s been a month since the trade and Harrison’s short-term plan is already blowing up in his face. Davis has played a total of 31 minutes for the Mavericks after picking up an adductor strain in his very first game in a Dallas uniform. A few games after that, another one of Dallas’ big men went down when Daniel Gafford picked up a knee sprain. Oh, and Dereck Lively II has been out since Jan. 15 with a fracture ankle. The Mavericks got dealt the final death blow earlier this week when the team announced All-Star guard Kyrie Irving sustained an ACL tear in his left knee during the team’s 122-98 loss to the Sacramento Kings, sidelining him for the remainder of the season, and likely most of next season as well.

Late Tuesday, Harrison released a statement about Irving’s injury in which he elicited more praise and emotion than he ever said about Dončić after trading him in the middle of the night. Harrison once again evoked the work ethic of Bryant: “His work ethic and absolute dedication to his craft, it’s cut from the cloth of greats. I know it, I lived it, and I see the same ferocity and passion in him that I saw in Kobe.” Harrison called Irving the “heart and soul” of the Mavericks, and touched on his “evolution and growth” as a player. It basically read as yet another sleight to Dončić, the guy who has carried the Mavericks franchise on his back since the day he was drafted. But I digress.

With Irving’s ACL injury, that four-year future Harrison is only focusing on just evaporated. An ACL tear can take anywhere between 8-12 months to fully heal, so at the latest Irving won’t be available until March 2026. That puts the thought of contending for a championship next season out the window. And that’s assuming Irving even stays in Dallas past this season, as he has a $43.96 million player option he’s able to opt out of to become an unrestricted free agent and sign elsewhere.

That’s Problem 1, and regardless of Irving’s decision to stay or leave, it still doesn’t change the fact that he’s going to miss most, or maybe all of next season. Then we come to our second concern: Anthony Davis. Why would Davis want to waste a season with Dallas when he can try to force a trade elsewhere to a championship-contending team? 

There’s nothing to suggest Davis would force a move, but maybe it’s wise for the Mavericks to consider trading the All-Star forward, as my colleague Sam Quinn suggested. If Irving is to miss all of next season, the first time that duo will be available to play together will be in the 2026-27 season, when Davis is 33 and Irving is 34. Banking on both being fully healthy at that time is a massive risk, and all it takes is one more injury to completely derail Harrison’s already harebrained scheme even further.

Davis won’t fetch a massive haul for the Mavericks, though they didn’t get one for Dončić either, and Harrison may be too proud to even trade the guy he just staked his whole career on. But besides all the theoretical ideas about what the Mavericks should do at this juncture, all of this was completely avoidable had Harrison not traded Dončić.

I’m not saying Dončić getting traded led to Irving’s freak injury. But for the last six weeks, Irving led the league in minutes played (38.7). Most of the offensive responsibility fell on his shoulders without Dončić to lean on, and as an undersized veteran guard who loves to get to the rim, the reps start to add up, increasing the likelihood for an injury, though one as catastrophic as this could’ve never been predicted.

But had Irving torn his ACL with Dončić still on the roster, at least that would’ve only dampened the next year and a half for Dallas. Dončić was always the failsafe for the Mavericks, someone who is barely in his prime, and could be rebuilt around if Irving struggled to round back into form. Without him there, the Mavericks are like a sinking ship slowly meeting its inevitable demise with Harrison still trying to convince everyone that what he did was the right decision.

That four-year window Harrison mentioned has quickly turned into a two-year window, and even that’s generous given who they’ve built this team around. He’s more than willing to take the blame if this whole ordeal goes sideways, which you could very well argue it already has, but Harrison’s willingness to take accountability doesn’t ignore the hubris with which he acted when trading Dončić in the first place. And to make matters worse, even if the Mavericks decided to fire Harrison today, the damage he’s caused will be felt throughout this franchise for the better part of the next decade, given that Dallas doesn’t control any of its own first-round picks between 2027 and 2030.

Harrison’s short-term plan has quickly been engulfed by a fiery inferno, and the long-term outlook looks even worse. With the way this is going, Harrison may be relieved of his duties before long, but the Mavericks will be stuck holding the bag while being forced to watch Dončić wear another team’s jersey while continuing his ascension towards one of the greatest players in league history. And Harrison will always be remembered as the guy who sent him in what is already the worst trade in NBA history.