It took just one week for Nico Harrison’s dream, his grand vision, to come roaring into life. On Feb. 8, one Saturday after he had been traded from the Lakers for Luka Doncic, Anthony Davis made his Mavericks debut and played like this was going to be the showcase game for his entire career.
In fact, it was — 26 points, 16 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 blocked shots (it seemed like more). The Mavericks set a team record with 18 blocked shots. This was the defensive monster Nico had just created with the most unpopular Dallas trade of all time.
Oh, yes. Davis didn’t finish the third quarter. He would not play again until March 24 in Brooklyn. By that time, Kyrie Irving would be finished for that season and a fair portion of this one with another major knee injury.
So, in the end, one game. That’s what Nico got from AD and Kyrie, his dream combination, the idea that enabled him (with a major assist from governor Patrick Dumont) to trade Doncic to the club’s hated Los Angeles rival. Davis played in 14 games out of a possible 43 following the trade. That’s the kind of unavailability in a star player NBA teams do all they possibly can to avoid. Nico sought it, got it, and paid for it with his firing Tuesday.
Mavericks
There’s no need to rewrite history and suggest that Harrison traded a flawless player. I spoke to one long-time Mavs season ticket holder, a prominent Dallas individual himself, before Monday night’s game with Milwaukee, and he thought Nico did the right thing in trading an oft-injured player who lacked a total commitment to his health away from the court. But former Mayor Ron Kirk agreed that Nico had not made the right deal.
Even this year, with Luka having worked himself into the best shape of his professional career, he has missed four of the Lakers’ 11 games. He played in 50 games for Dallas and LA last year, although that was — to this point — an anomaly. Doncic missed an average of 12 games in his first six seasons with Dallas. That’s roughly the average of all the major players in today’s game. And his playoff performances in 2022 and 2024 speak for themselves.
Davis and Irving, players who have been in the league six and seven years longer than Luka, have lengthy injury histories that register as the main reason no one else would have dreamed of pairing them together as the keys to a championship, especially not at the cost of trading a five-time first-team all-NBA player who was beloved.
That last part — the beloved element — is the one that Dumont missed, the thing that permitted him to sign off on Nico’s longshot fantasy basketball trade that never should have happened in reality. Now Dumont is hoping to make amends with the fans although he has at least acknowledged he understands there is a ways to go.
The important reason for getting rid of Nico was not anger for having engineered a terrible trade. The reason is the Mavericks have to set aside all thoughts of the AD-Kyrie combo ever amounting to anything and trade one or both whenever they show enough signs of fitness to recreate any level of trade value. Make no mistake, anyone can be traded in the NBA. Some players have a long injury history, and some are burdened with oversized contracts. These players carry both, but creative basketball minds find a way to seek them (just not in exchange for first-team superstars).
Had he been allowed to remain in place, Nico would have been inclined to keep chasing his lost cause. A new GM, whether it’s Michael Finley, Matt Riccardi or someone outside the organization, can look toward building a young team with Cooper Flagg as the centerpiece. Flagg is already showing signs of breaking through, weathering the storm that head coach Jason Kidd created by making him the team’s point guard the first two weeks before removing at least that particular pressure from the 18-year-old’s shoulders. He scored 26 Monday night in a close loss to Milwaukee and was the best player the Mavericks had on the floor.
Flagg doesn’t need to ride out the final days of Davis’ and Irving’s careers, wondering if both can last a month on the floor together before one is forced to hobble back to the locker room. The same can be said for 15-year vet Klay Thompson, less likely to suffer a major injury perhaps but, all in all, a spot-up shooter in decline at the end of a great run.
With this week’s changes at the top, the Mavericks can move into the future. A new vision will be pursued. For Nico Harrison, well, he will always have Feb. 8 against the Rockets.
Nico Harrison in ‘good spirits’ after Dallas Mavericks’ firing decision, report saysSportsDay Insiders: What steps can Mavs take to win fans back after firing Nico Harrison?
Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.