Bill Simmons points to biggest mistake Nico Harrison made in Luka Doncic trade he completely ‘missed’

Bill Simmons says Nico Harrison didn’t consider Luka Doncic getting petty revenge during trade

Bill Simmons spoke on his podcast about the Nico Harrison trading Luka Doncic and his subsequent firing at the hands of the Dallas Mavericks 10 months later.

Simmons claimed that Harrison didn’t think Luka Doncic would take the decision personally and vow to make him look bad for it, something that came back to haunt the GM in the end.

“When I look back, now that it’s almost 10 months later, this was really a ‘we don’t think Luka can be the face of our team’ trade, so ‘what’s the best we can do?’

It was almost like, ‘We might be getting one over on the Lakers if we get this trade done for him now because they don’t realize what they’re buying.’

“But the part they missed, which I said at the time, was that you’re lighting a fire under somebody who, the one thing you could kind of ding them on was, ‘He’s not in great shape yet. He’s a little bit of a diva.’

“By trading him, you were just lighting this massive fire under him to be like, ‘I’m going to f—— show you.’ So, it was like the greatest thing that could have happened to him.

“People like me said that at the time, and that was the part he didn’t factor into the trade. ‘What is the potential of what I’m giving up? What happens if this guy goes up a level,’ which is what’s happening.”

Dallas Mavericks must blow the team up to find their way back

With the Dallas Mavericks now having moved on from Nico Harrison, they must now look at the rest of their roster and understand the situation they are in.

The roster Harrison put together is untenable, and they might want to consider moving on from this squad as soon as possible.

Trading Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving could get them some strong returns, especially to add to their draft capital going forward.

Any player not named Cooper Flagg should be considered a tradable asset for the Mavericks, as they look to fix what can only be described as a blunder of epic proportions.