When Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison was fired, on November 11 the be exact, the act surprised absolutely no one. Considering Harrison’s disastrous move to trade Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis, many would have thought his firing came a bit late. It could also be argued that it was an act of mercy.
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Harrison had become so reviled by Mavs fans that he couldn’t even go out to eat in Dallas without being accosted. And the minute Harrison was let go, it seemed to signal that the Mavs might trade Davis away, if for no other reason than to wash away the stink of one of the worst trades in NBA history.
It took almost three months, but on Wednesday, AD finally found a new home. The Mavs sent him to the Wizards in a huge deal that involved seven other players and five draft picks. And they are clearly ready to kickstart a new era and a new timeline with No. 1 overall pick and rookie extraordinaire Cooper Flagg as the centerpiece.
According to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, though, that shift in philosophy doesn’t involve trading away Kyrie Irving, who is still rehabbing his torn ACL.
It’s still unknown whether Kyrie will play at all this season, but MacMahon told Dallas’ 105.3 The Fan that because of their draft pick situation, the Mavs won’t be interested in tanking after this year.
“Ideally, there is a middle ground,” said MacMahon. “Because listen, this is the one year on [Flagg’s] rookie deal that they benefit from being bad.”
MacMahon pointed out that next year’s first-rounder will be conveyed to the Hornets unless it lands in the top two. After that, they have swaps with the Rockets and Spurs that don’t seem likely to be favorable. So it makes sense to keep Kyrie around to help bridge from the old era to the new.
“They want to be competitive next season,” MacMahon explained. “That’s part of the reason that, to this point, they have shown absolutely zero interest in entertaining trade discussions with Kyrie. I can’t promise that Kyrie’s gonna be here for three or four years, but I do believe he’ll at least be here next season.”
Trading Davis away improves the Mavs’ chances of landing better lottery odds this year. But the truth is that even with him on the roster, they weren’t a playoff-caliber team. He has only played 20 games thanks to a long string of injuries, and even when he did play, the Mavs were only 10-10. Without him, though, they’re 9-21.
Overall, only five teams have fewer wins than the Mavericks in the league. So it seems likely that they’ll land a pretty solid pick in June’s draft, even if the lottery balls don’t bounce their way again.
This is a loaded draft, so if the Mavs can pair a quality rookie with Flagg, they’ll have a great core moving forward. With a fully healthy Kyrie running point alongside them and Dereck Lively II back on the floor, they could take a big leap next year.
