Despite getting No. 1 draft pick Cooper Flagg, the Dallas Mavericks have been struggling, and fans are blaming it all on general manager Nico Harrison. The Mavs may have gotten to the NBA Finals under him in 2024, but it was all downhill after that. Now, after calls to have him fired have grown even louder, ESPN’s Shams Charania and Tim MacMahon have reported that the team will finally be doing that.
As of writing, he has not been fired yet, but reports indicate that his firing his already imminent. The team is off to a 3-8 start and is one of the worst teams in the Western Conference right now. He had made some big trade decisions to the detriment of the Mavs, and these are five of the worst ones:
Nico Harrison’s 5 Worst Trades As Dallas Mavericks GM:
Luka Doncic For Anthony Davis
Perhaps the biggest fumble of Nico Harrison’s tenure as Dallas Mavericks GM is when he traded away a prime Luka Doncic for an aging and injury-prone Anthony Davis. Many believed this was when things turned for the worse in Dallas, with the team going from championship contender to one of the worst teams in the NBA in just two seasons.
As Dallas continues its struggles this season, Doncic has flourished with the LA Lakers, with him being seen as the future of the franchise and will be the one to replace the aging LeBron James.
Traded Kristaps Porzingis Away For Davis Bertans and Spencer Dinwiddie
Kristaps Porzingis and Luka Doncic were supposed to be Dallas’ European 1-2 punch, with the Latvian being their anchor in the middle, while the Slovenian was their main offensive threat. He traded Porzingis to the Washington Wizards for Davis Bertans and Spencer Dinwiddie in 2022, and this would soon come back to haunt Dallas.
In 2024, Porzingis ended up with the Boston Celtics, which reached the NBA Finals. This meant that he had to face his former team, the Mavericks, with the C’s ultimately winning their record 18th NBA title over Harrison’s Mavs.
Quentin Grimes for Caleb Martin
During the same season, Harrison traded one of their young up-and-coming stars in Quentin Grimes for Caleb Martin. In hindsight, this was a bad trade because Grimes is proving to be one of the best scorers for the Philadelphia 76ers, while Martin just averages 4.6 points per game.
Getting Grant Williams In 3-Team Deal
Grant Williams was good with the Boston Celtics, and his performance there got Nico Harrison trading for him in a three-team deal. They traded away Reggie Bullock and got Grant, but the power forward reportedly did not get along well with the rest of the Mavs locker room and was soon traded away again.
Allowing Jalen Brunson To Walk Away As A Free Agent
This one is not really a trade, but in hindsight, Nico Harrison should have done his best to keep Jalen Brunson. The Knicks are now one of the best teams in the East with Brunson as their star player, which in hindsight, meant that this was a big loss for Harrison.
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