What is TRUE or FALSE About Nico Harrison Being Fired

What is TRUE or FALSE About Nico Harrison Being Fired

Nico Harrison is gone, but what is true and what is false about his tenure in Dallas? Was he the worst GM in the history of sports? I answered that today. This is Cooper Flag and you’re listening to Locked on M. I think that’s a good question. Morning. You are Locked on M. Your daily Mavericks podcast, part of the locked on podcast network. Your team everyday. I’m going to see the mic back. You are locked on the Dallas Mavericks. This is one of your co-host Isaac Harris. Cover the math for the last 10 years alongside my good friend Nick Angstead. And we are still day one of Nico Harrison’s departure from the Dallas Mavericks. We dropped an episode early this morning uh or early yesterday morning uh as soon as the news came out and man we’re here. I want to talk about what’s true and what’s false about his tenure in Dallas. Um man, there’s a lot of stuff uh being talked about um right now over the last 24 hours, right? I mean, everything’s uh reflecting on the past 9 months with Nico at the helm in Dallas uh while also looking ahead and what could come uh in the future. And I just wanted to hop on like, hey, I want to do it one more thing. I want to go through some of the statements that’s being thrown out. And I want to give you my opinion on what’s true and what’s false. So, let’s start here. I think one of the things that I’m seeing the most right now is Nico Harrison was the scapegoat for uh the Luca Donuch fallout, the Luca Donuch um trade and and all of that. He was the scapegoat and it really wasn’t him. I can’t tell people enough that this was Nico Harrison’s decision. It was his idea. He was the one who went and got the Ascension coffee with Rob Pelinka. Every single U report, everybody I’ve talked to, anybody you talk to that would be in the know of the situation that Nico was driving the ship with um the whole trade and the whole idea of the trade. Now, what that does not mean, it does not mean Patrick Dumont is out of the woods because Patrick Dumont did sign off on it. Patrick Dumat uh did give Nico Harrison full control uh of everything. Um Patrick Dumat did uh say some wild things after the trade um about yeah roster construction teams and um past players that took their body seriously and all this stuff. So, um, he is not without fault in that whole situation, 100%. But Nico Harrison is not the scapegoat. Um, some of the chatter about, hey, well, Nico was just a fog. It wasn’t his decision to trade Luca, that is just not true. That’s that’s that’s false. Uh, Nico had full power from Patrick Dumont. Deont buys the team from Mark Cuban or the majority ownership. believes Nico Harrison puts his trust and empowers Nico Harrison. Um, a unique situation. We’ve never seen like we haven’t seen something like that before as far as this. Yeah. Just the whole situation that unfolded and the decision that was made to trade Luca. So, uh, Nico Harrison was a scapegoat. False. He was not. It was his decision, his idea. He did get full approval from Patrick Deront. Um, let’s do the next one. We never got to see the full Nico vision. I referenced this the other night uh at the Bucks game. I was talking with some people um that has connections to Nico uh before before the game and in those conversations are talking about just the the team, the roster construction and anyone associated with the team or the front office um or anybody um yeah, anybody associated with the team or front office that when you talk about the team and the current struggles, one of the first talking points you hear back is like, well, look at the injuries. It’s like, well, what do you expect? Kyrie’s been out. AD’s been out. Um, look at some of these past systems that Triano has run. They’ve had these two star players. We’ve had the these are the two star players are building around. They’ve been out. Kyrie obviously hasn’t um gotten to play. And it’s like you go back to this. You never got to see the full Nico vision. And I actually say it was it’s true. We we haven’t got to see the full Nico vision because unless you want to go back to the first half against the Houston Rockets post trade and say you know what those two f those two quarters in the first half that’s when we got to see Nico vision was that fun that those two quarters were so much fun but that’s all we got right like cuz after that AD was hurt after that Kyrie ends up tearing his ACL and at the start of the season Kyrie’s still out so we don’t get to see him and AD together and then bam Nico’s gone. on before you get to see all that. So, did we get to see Nico’s full vision intact, including his vision to land Cooper flag? What a vision. What an idea, man. If y’all could just see that vision of Nikos to get Cooper flag. Did we get to see the full vision of everyone healthy at the same time playing together? We did not. But that doesn’t mean that’s that’s a reason not to let him go because it’s like one of the biggest risk and what if what ifs ever is putting this team together and say you know what if they’re healthy together then this is going to be dominant. There’s a reason why you’re saying if there’s a reason why you’re placing that word right there because there’s a history there with Anthony Davis and uh you know going into this whole off season going into the entire season that Kyrie was going to be out for a really big chunk of that. So you can’t really claim the like well man we you should have kept Nico until you saw the vision. Did we see the vision fully intact with everyone healthy? No. That’s a true statement. But was it worth not firing him? No, it wasn’t worth not firing him because you put a risky stuff situation like there there’s a chance you might not ever see that. So, you’re just going to hold on to him for, you know, the next two years with the and you’re still dangling the carrot in front of people saying, “Yeah, but wait, wait till that wait till AD gets back.” And then it’s like, well, and so if Kyrie comes, you know, or when Kyrie comes back, and then it’s like, well, what if Kyrie isn’t 100%. You see him like like he was last year, then it’s like, well, wait until next year. Kyrie’s fully healthy. AD is going to be coming back from an offseason. That’s what we thought we were getting from AD at the beginning of this season. So, I’m just It’s a true statement, but it’s not a reason not to let him go. Let’s do another one. This was more than a basketball product decision. I’ve seen a lot of people, that’s probably the wrong statement, but it gives me it gives me an excuse to talk about the subject. I’ve seen a lot of people just focus on the basketball part, right? kind of like what I just did of, hey, the vision, the injuries, it’s a new system. It’s going to take time. Cooper’s super young. Like, let’s let’s see what it all looks like. It’s going to be great when they all get back and they’re healthy and and it’s all together. Um, that’s the like that’s the basketball side. We can say, “Hey, that didn’t work. This didn’t work.” And the combination, all this stuff, and just focus on the basketball side of why you let Nico Harrison go. this was much bigger than just what the like product on the basketball court was. So when you hear the stuff about all the stuff off the court about Nico Harrison and you’re like is that really true? Like I think it was just about the basketball. I think it was just like they just had a losing record and everybody just piled on and it’s a little unfair. Like Draymond Green is like it’s unfair, you know, unfair to let go of Nico Harrison because we hadn’t even got to see it yet. you know, it’s premature and all stuff. And it’s like, no, there’s a lot more reasons behind the basketball, behind what you see on the on the basketball court, and I’m going to talk about those right after the break. This podcast is brought to you by our friends over at FanDuel. The NBA is rolling right now. There’s no better place to get get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you missed the start of the game or want to ride the hot hand FanDuel’s live bets on everything from who will score next to the fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into the same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps getting keeps every game exciting, especially when your team’s making that late push or losing the late push in the fourth quarter. 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That visit rugit.comtonba to get 15% off your first order. That’s r ug.com/lockton NBA. Don’t forget to use our code locked on NBA so that they know who sent you. Rouette, stop making excuses. Start making moves. Wow. Shut it down. Let’s go home. All right. Talk about Nico Harrison. What’s true? What’s false about his tenure in Dallas? Man, he’s gone. Let’s go. Let’s go. First step, first step of getting this thing, this whole ship turned around uh and back on track. But I was talking about the uh reasons why Nico was fired and let go. Um a lot of people’s focus on the basketball side right now, citing the record, citing the premature stuff with the injuries and like, oh, you got to see this stuff through because it’s, you know, Nico’s it’s Nico’s vision. You got to see wait and see you see his vision to see if it works and all this stuff. It’s way bigger than that. You’re talking Where do you want to start first? You want to talk about the fan base? This guy disrespected a fan base from the very beginning. When you trade a superstar like Luca Donuch that the city is um beloved. Like I mean if there’s a city that knows how to love a star player, it’s freaking us. It’s it’s Dallas, right? Like we’ve had Dirk all these years. Like there’s a city that knows how to connect with a superstar player, specifically a basketball player. It’s the Dallas Mavericks fans. And when you go and there’s one, you make the decision to give up on the guy and Luca Don and say, “Hey, see you to everybody in Dallas and all the kids and everything that has looked up to Luca and watched Luca take you to the finals and all these different things. Bye.” Like I’m send sending him off in the middle of the night. Have fun with those breakfast conversations the next morning with all your kids. Then you get in front of a a camera for the pre the press conference at this little makeshift table in Cleveland and you like laugh and like make a joke. It’s like talk about reading the room. There’s this whole connection and I I said it on yesterday’s podcast that there is one thing to trade Luca Donic. If you reach that conclusion to trade Luca, which is still crazy at his age and all this stuff, and you go through, you know, the you put it up for a bidding war and you get a crazy amount of assets, you do it in the off season, you do all these different things, people are still going to be pissed, but the hate isn’t going to be I don’t think the hate is as much as it is right now because of all the things you did after that. the PR disaster. Like there, you could write an instructional book on what not to do when you make an unpopular decision with a fan base. Other teams and organizations that are going to study Dallas are going to we’re going to get the reports are like, “Yeah, this team, whatever the sport it is, this team really looked into and talked to people associated with the Dallas Mavericks of what all what all went wrong and what they did wrong after the Luca trade.” It’s we’re going to get that story sometime in the next handful of years. You have an invite only like roundt um with media people to try to like I don’t know curve the conversation which Nico says was not his idea. He tried to blame someone else with that. That’s what that’s another thing he told me um in our media day conversation uh because I pointed that out to him. I was like, “Hey, what about this?” and uh cuz I was having fun pointing out some things. Um that was know them and Nico just didn’t ever take responsibility, but there was never a hey, we realize we realize that we just traded someone that’s beloved by you guys. We know that this is a decision that we we have made collectively and that we we believe in at the time, but we we know we’re we’ve lost a lot of your trust. we know we we want to gain that back. And they’ve never they never tried to step towards the fans. It was always a pushing the fans away of like, whoa, y’all got to get on board type of thing. And that was that’s where he just butchered the whole thing. So many different comments that we’ve laughed and we will continue to make fun of forever of the seeing the vision after getting Cooper of fortune favors the bold. U there was that comment to where like he was just like, “Yeah, well, we’re not even going to be around in 20 or 30 years. H like it was like what what what are we what are we doing right now? There’s no acknowledgement and connecting with the fans. So when you lose a big portion of the fans and I get it man you got the you got Cooper flag and then you’re dropping the articles after that. I think it was Rick Welt who had the article. I was like, man, so many fans came back, you know, so many fans were ringing off the it was ringing off the hook after we got Cooper Flag. And it’s like, all right, like I I’m glad that a lot of fans reuped their uh season tickets after getting Cooper flag, but you better win or else it’s going to come back. And boy, that didn’t take long. He didn’t get the 10 games before getting fired eco chance. And it was right back, if not worse than what it was after the trade. So that’s when you n I’ve never seen a fan base like this. I’ve never seen a fan base I’ve never seen a fan base like this in the sense of I think the fans played a huge role in this. I think this is a huge day for sports fans in general. I don’t I don’t care if that seems like cliche or whatever hyperbolic like I don’t care because I don’t think without the fan reaction of firing Nico in the arena and all the different stuff like I don’t think that this happens without that. And my my wife’s calling me right now. Sorry babe talking about Nico. She’s so tired of hearing about Nico. She’s like there’s no way it happened. Like yes it did. Um, what was I talking? This is what happens. My wife calls and I just get my brain starts. That’s a good thing. You get butterflies when your wife calls. I love my wife. She’s She’s the rock of the family. Been married 12 years. Let’s go. Um, y’all don’t care about my wife. I didn’t forgot. I honestly thought I forgot what I was talking about. I was talking about Okay. I was talking about Nico off the court stuff. fans and the fans played a role I I think in this but you alienated fans. You have so many people in the organization that um their careers uh either ended or had to veer off track because of him. Um, you had people that were beloved around the team for so long of the uh, training staff previously and Casey Smith and u, there’s other people that are not like fully public on it of like what played into roles and people leaving and stuff and um, and then of course like the Dirk stuff. There’s a lot of um, stuff behind the scenes with that and it’s just like that is that has to play a part in it. You can’t um act like you’re better than fans or act like you’re better than some of the people that work underneath you and then expect, hey, well, just wait till my vision gets seen on the basketball court. It’s not all about the basketball court. This was off the off the court stuff, too, and all the ramifications. I mean, the stuff that I didn’t know was some of the effect it was having on the players. Uh because I just haven’t talked to the players about it recent. I haven’t asked anyone recently about, hey, what’s the effect of Fire and Eco on on you guys, but seeing some of the reports over the last 24 hours of, man, how some of them preferred playing on the road compared to at home and how it was weighing on them and all this stuff, I’m just glad that that is lifted off their shoulders and it has to mean something knowing that hey, all the fan base is like fully behind you. So, it’s bigger than on the court stuff. Last one I want to talk about is the statement Nico Harrison was the wor is the worst or was the worst GM ever. False. Surprisingly, but close. Listen, I’ I’ve seen a lot of stuff over the past, even before the game, even before the Bucks game and some conversations of with some people that were reminding me, hey, Nico has done some good things around here. I’m like, I’m I’m not saying he didn’t. Just because I think he should be fired doesn’t mean he he didn’t do anything good around here. I get it. Like the Mavs went to an NBA Finals with Nico Harrison as GM. They went to another Western Conference Finals with Nico as the GM. He brought Jason Kid with him. Jason Kid was the coach for those runs. I get that. He took the chance on Kyrie and made that trade and swung for that. Heck of a trade. Love that trade. Kyrie has been awesome in here. I hope they keep Kyrie for the long run. He made the Porzingis trade. I love that trade. I was like going to bat for him so hard because when you trade Porzingis, you get Denwitty and Bertton’s back. Some people are like, “What the heck?” That was right at the deadline like buzzer. I loved it. I was on record on the on this pod that night saying, “Hey, us getting a third ball handler in Denwitty next to Brunson and and Luca will do wonders for this team.” That year they go in the conference finals. they go to face the Warriors in the in the conference finals. The Lively draft night like Derrick Lively trading trading for Derrick Lively and moving back two spots and getting uh off the Bertton’s contract. You get the later first round pick in that too which is Omax. Love Omax RP. Uh but that was a solid move. You identified Lively too. I know he’s been hurt and stuff but the talent and the fit next to Luke and all that stuff. He has done good things in here. But what I told somebody Monday night is like for all the good things, there’s the bad things. One, you could say Luca the Luca trade outweighs all of that. Which is correct. You make a trade like that, it does define your career. He got upset with me whenever I asked that question about why you shouldn’t be fired because he felt like that I was summing up his career into one decision. And he thought that I asked that question because I didn’t like the trade. And I was like, “Hey, I don’t like the trade. I disagree with you. I think it was a wrong move.” Uh, and Nick can vowed for me that I said that right there uh to him. But I was like, I wasn’t asking because of that. I was asking because in this arena right here that we were standing in, there are 20,000 people chanting for you to be fired. I wanted to know why those 20,000 people were wrong. So, I had nothing to do with how I felt about the trade. So, the Luca trade outweighs all of the good things. But on top of that, it’s not just the Luca trade. You got the Jaylen Brunson debacle of not re-uping with him and extension and all the stuff and then he’s gone which I get Donnie Nelson the contract stuff that he he signed back then before Nico I know that played into it but Nico did have a decision to give Brunson the extension whenever he wanted it and he passed on it. We could talk about Grimes for Martin trade. We could talk about Grant Williams, the Grant Williams U-turn. Like you trade for, you know, you get Grant Williams and then it’s so bad that in order to get Reggie Bullock, you got to like ship off Grant Williams with a first round pick to get Reggie like and all this stuff. Like that’s Christian Wood. Woof. Some of y’all wanted to max Christian Wood. I remember those days. So, was Nico the worst GM of sports history? No. But dang, he was close. Because I’ve never seen, and I don’t think we’re going to see for a while, a front office executive make a decision like that with Luca Trade and then follow it up for with nine months of absolute disaster and not being able to understand the connection with fans and all the right moves after that. So, there you go. Just another reason to talk about Nico Harrison today. Uh, we got another podcast. I guess there was one that came out earlier this morning because I think I’m um dropping this late Wednesday morning possibly. And then we’re going to have pods throughout the week. There’s a game uh Wednesday night here at home which should be fun against the Suns. Uh talking about a relief and a weight off everyone’s shoulders walking into the arena that night. But uh yeah, check out all of our coverage, share anything from this past week, and uh yeah, peace out.

The Dallas Mavericks fired GM Nico Harrison after nine months following the controversial Luka Doncic trade to the Lakers. What went wrong with Nico Harrison’s tenure as Mavs GM, and was firing him the right decision for the Dallas Mavericks, Cooper Flagg, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, and the NBA franchise’s future?

Isaac Harris breaks down what’s true and false about Nico Harrison’s time with the Dallas Mavericks, examining the Luka Doncic trade fallout, the impact on Cooper Flagg and Anthony Davis injuries, Kyrie Irving’s ACL recovery, and whether Harrison deserved to be fired. Harris also discusses the Jalen Brunson extension mistake, the Grant Williams trade disaster, the Kristaps Porzingis deal, Dereck Lively II’s draft night acquisition, and how the fanbase revolt influenced ownership’s decision.

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