Dallas Mavericks GM Nico Harrison admits miscalculations in Luka Doncic trade, closed-door media roundtable

“Yeah, good question. I did know Luka was important to the, to the fanbase. Um, I didn’t quite know it to what level,” Harrison said. “Really, the way we looked at it is, you know, if you’re putting on, if you’re putting a team on the floor that’s Kyrie, Klay, PJ, Anthony Davis, and Lively, uh, we feel that’s a championship-caliber team and we would have been winning at a high level and that would have quieted some of the outrage. And, so, unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that so it just continued to, you know, go on and on.”

The Mavericks saw their season end on Friday in the final game of the Play-In Tournament with a 120-106 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. Dallas would finish at 40-44 overall with that, including 14-21 since that trade took place on February 1st.

That would end what’s been a two and a half month-long storyline for the franchise since doing that deal with Doncic becoming a Los Angeles Laker. Not much went right on the court, despite having a chance to make it into the playoffs as the ten-seed, with those losses as well as several notable injuries. That led to even more critical criticism off of it with fans calling for the firing of Harrison amidst death threats and racial comments as well.

All that said, Harrison probably should have had a better gauge on the reaction to these decisions as a general manager in the NBA. Either way, though, he should expect to hear more of it going into the offseason and come tip-off of next season for their first full season without Doncic.

Harrison defends job amid calls for firing: ‘I’ve done a really good job here’

On February 1st, Mavericks GM Nico Harrison set the association ablaze when he traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. At an end-of-season press conference on Monday, Harrison reflected on that decision and the impact that’s had on many calling for his job as general manager in Dallas.

“I think I’ve done a really good job here, and I don’t think I can be judged for the injuries this year. … I think I have a really good working relationship with Patrick (Dumont),” Harrison said per Colin Salao at Front Office Sports.

“When you have 20,000 people chanting in the stadium saying ‘Fire Nico,’ you really feel it,” Harrison said. “But I’m good. God’s got me covered.”