The Dallas Mavericks firing general manager Nico Harrison was something everyone saw coming. It stems directly from his disastrous move at February’s trade deadline to trade away beloved superstar Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis. On top of that, Not only have the Mavs gotten off to a disastrous start this season at 3-8, Luka and the Lakers are cooking at 8-3, all while LeBron James has yet to even play a game.
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The Mavs have injury issues of their own, but their fanbase isn’t open to excuses given how vociferously they were against the trade in the first place.
And even though fans have also been angry at team ownership for allowing all of this to happen, Harrison’s firing allows teams president Patrick Dumont to distance himself from the decision and move in a new direction with a cleaner slate.
Kendrick Perkins made it clear on last night’s episode of Road Trippin’ that there’s only one person to blame. “This trade was all Nico,” he said. “This was all Nico. It was speculations out there, ‘Did it come from the top? Did the top have to approve it?’ No, when the new ownership group came in place, they had full trust in Nico to make the decisions.”
Perk cited Harrison’s successful (and also widely panned) signing of Kyrie Irving as one reason he had ownership’s trust, but that trust only goes so far when you make a move that blows up in your face this badly. “When you trade an international superstar, your room for error? You have none,” he said.
Unfortunately for Harrison, the Mavs have had extremely bad luck since the trade happened, other than, of course, landing the No. 1 pick and drafting Cooper Flagg. Kyrie tore his ACL in March. Anthony Davis reported to camp out of shape due to offseason surgery. For those reasons, Perk’s Road Trippin’ cohost Richard Jefferson actually zagged and said that Harrison should have been given more time to see if his vision could work.
“When you look at their roster and some of the injuries, we’re like ‘Oh, the first 10 games, Luka’s leading the league in scoring.’ Well he’s done that before. ‘Oh, the first 10 games, the Lakers are 8-2 and we’re 3-7?’ It’s like, there’s 72 more games to go,” he argued.
“If you go a full season, and Kyrie comes back healthy, Klay gets his legs underneath him, AD gets in shape, Cooper Flagg becomes the Cooper Flagg that we know, right? When you do that, to me, that is one of those spaces where you’re like OK, now we can judge them at Game 82 and on,” Jefferson added.
Jefferson may be right that the Mavs could play much better once they have all their pieces in place, but Harrison also killed his margin for error when he traded Luka away. He turned the fanbase against him and made it so that if the team wasn’t amazing right away, he’d be the fall guy. Having such a rough start just turned the heat up too much.
As for Perk, he’s right that Harrison deserves the blame for what happened, but it also doesn’t seem right to completely absolve ownership from taking at least some responsibility. You’re responsible for the guy you hire and the decisions he makes. Patrick Dumont got in front of the microphone and recited the same talking points that Harrison did to justify the trade. You can’t separate the two.
When the dust clears from Harrison’s firing and the team gets healthy again, the Mavs should be in a much better place than they’re in right now. Will it be too late for this season due to how difficult the West is and the deep hole the Mavs have already dug for themselves? Maybe. But if Flagg turns out to be the guy, the future will still be bright. Harrison just won’t be there to see it.
