As Marc Stein writes for The Stein Line (Substack link), Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont opted to continue backing president of basketball operations and general manager Nico Harrison throughout the offseason and into the 2025/26 season in large part because Dumont was the one who ultimately approved last season’s shocking, widely panned trade sending Luka Doncic to Los Angeles — even if Harrison was the one who instigated that deal.
However, while the vibes in Dallas appeared to be on the rebound after the Mavs lucked into the No. 1 overall pick in May and drafted Cooper Flagg in June, the team is once again on the downswing this fall, having gotten off to a 3-7 start.
According to Stein, as the Mavs try to overcome injuries, a lack of shot creation and play-making, and subpar point-of-attack defense, morale within the organization has “cratered.” The relentless negativity surrounding the team – including at home games, where Dallas has a 2-5 record and fans have repeatedly chanted for Harrison to be fired – has been wearing on ownership.
As Stein details, it still doesn’t seem as if Dumont is eager to make a front office change, but the idea of considering such a move has become “unavoidable” amidst the ugly start to the season.
In the latest episode of The Hoop Collective podcast (YouTube link), ESPN’s Tim MacMahon essentially said the same thing in much stronger terms.
“At this point, I believe it is a matter of when, not if, Nico Harrison will be fired,” MacMahon said. “And there’s a very, very strong likelihood that will be mid-season. … After that Luka trade, Patrick Dumont, one of his infamous quotes was, ‘In Nico we trust.’ I’m just telling you, the trust is disintegrated at this point.”
MacMahon pointed to the recent handling of Anthony Davis‘ left calf strain as an example of how Dumont has become increasingly involved in organizational decisions that would previously have been left up to Harrison and/or other staff members. As MacMahon explains, Davis had hoped to return to action on Saturday in Washington, but was held out after some “internal disagreement” about whether that was a good idea.
“There was a lot of opinions voiced in that,” MacMahon said. “… One of the opinions – I don’t know if it was a veto, I don’t know how heavily this opinion weighed in – but one of the opinions that was involved here was Patrick Dumont’s. Patrick Dumont went from blind faith in Nico to now weighing in on whether a star can come back from injury.”
While MacMahon didn’t say it outright, his implication was that Davis rushed back from an injury last season in an effort to quell the negative PR surrounding Harrison and that Dumont didn’t want to risk having that happen again.
“My understanding is that there were people with the Mavericks’ medical staff that were saying, ‘We cannot rush this guy back,’ that Dumont certainly agreed with that, and that ultimately – I was told – by the end, everybody was on the same page. You know, OK,” MacMahon said with an eye-roll. “Ultimately they decided to hold off at least another couple of days. But the fact that Patrick Dumont is involved in that sort of decision making is a major, major development.”
The ongoing absence of point guard Kyrie Irving, who is recovering from an ACL tear, has been one major reason for the Mavericks’ struggles so far this season. But the front office knew heading into the offseason that Irving would miss a significant chunk of the season, and its major summer addition meant to fill that point guard void – veteran free agent D’Angelo Russell – wasn’t even in the starting lineup to open this season. Instead, Flagg – the NBA’s youngest player – was asked to take on a primary ball-handling role that was new to him.
According to Stein, if Dumont does make an in-season move to replace Harrison, the motivation would be two-fold. In addition to ensuring that the executive responsible for the Doncic trade isn’t the one continuing to make crucial personnel decisions, the goal would also be to recapture some positive vibes and try to win back fans that were alienated by that shocking deal.
stupid to put that all on Harrison. Dumont could have put the brakes on it… and is it Harrison’s fault that Ky tore his ACL too?
watching kidd’s offensive plan you got to wonder if going with a better coach could jump start the team? Should have let him go to the knicks.
It’s all about assumptions
The assumption was AD and Irving are fully healthy, so Mavs trade Luka
The assumption was Zion is fully healthy, so Pelicans trade unprotected first round pick
Why would a GM look at AD’s career games missed and assume he would be fully healthy?
At the time of the trade Luka’s percentage of missed games was over 20 percent, only slightly less than AD’s. With no history of even making a priority of taking care of his body and staying in shape. AD was coming off of two straight strong, healthy seasons.
It’s actually typical for a billionaire owner that ISN’T a huge basketball fan (like Cuban and Ballmer are) to blame the guy who made one of the worst trades ever for the results.
Sure, it’s partly his fault for trusting Nico’s opinion, but it’s not like Kyrie would have helped that much.
As far as we know trading Luka was his big idea. That was the beginning of the end for Mavs, so he should get all the blame and should hang his head in shame while leaving town.
beginning of the end? the Mavs are loaded with talent.
so shaqfoo what would you do to improve the Mavs?
@ShaqFoo
Not really – as their tied for the worst record in the west indicates.
No Davis, no Irving.
I believe that’s some of the talent he’s referring to
Well, they’ve had 5 games of Davis so far, so I guess he’s half right.
They have Flagg, Lively, a broken Anthony Davis, an injured Kyrie. They also bunch of run of the mill replaceable role players that were brought in the compliment a generational talent that was traded away.
Na the NBA also had something to do with it. They want LeBron out and Luka is the only way too do that. They gave them the first round pick. Copper is not Luka I don’t ever seem him being a 1A but I do see a Scottie Pippin type role for him. Not saying playing like Scotty. I’m saying the number two guy on a championship team and I believe if he gets another number one and plays at number to rural he’ll win a lot of championships
Its the whole organization fault definitely. Nico got a really poor return and even if Irving was there they were short on ball handlers. Russell at this point is a third pg on a good team. Kidd is trying his best to compete but is in a bad spot. Lively is always hurt. Davis wants to be a overweight pf. Flagg is doing way more than he can handle. They should be trading for a PG asap. Not even someone special. In reality they have there pick. Just start tearing this roster down and get a top pick reset for next year.
95% Nico, 5% Dumont. I could let go of this whole thing if the return was somewhat more balanced, but f**k that. Nico traded 77 in the dead of night without opening up the field to higher bidders. That was a dagger to the heart of all the people who pay his salary. He can go f**k off back to Nike if they will have him back, because no NBA team ever will.
Hire Cuban as GM?
Good, F this clown. Should fire him, rehire him and then fire him again.
Can you imagine how Nuggets fans would react if their GM traded Jokic and then basically said “off the record” 50 different times it was because he was fat and a bad defender? Harrison has no business being in this business. AD is great, when healthy, which other than Zion, is the least frequent situation for any player in the league. And the whole 7 years older part…was one of the worst trades of all time the second it was made, and it will only get worse with time. Took Luka one offseason to get in better shape and now he’s the face of the Lakers for the next 10 years. If they manage LeBron’s body, which it already looks like they are going to, that team can take out anybody in a series. Dallas won’t be competitive while Kyrie and AD are still elite, and then will suck for years when it’s just Flagg, who will probably want to leave by then too.
Even if you believe that Luka wouldn’t have gotten in shape without the trade, getting just 1 FRP and max christie was a way too little return.
That’s just it. Joker takes care of his body. He’s a true leader that takes pride in being the best that he can be.
So there would not be a need to trade him. You pay him the 300 million because you know that he is going to give it his all to win the championship.
Anyone that says Luka was giving his all to win a championship is straight up lying.
Don’t act like the Mavericks hadn’t been begging that fool to take his health seriously.
Found Nico’s burner lol
So you think Luka was doing everything right?
Because he is a great player, he doesn’t have to be in shape?
If that’s the case, why did he change up this year?
You know Luka lacked professionalism, but rather than admit it, you throw out nonsense about Nico burner accounts.
The trade was so absurdly stupid that I think Dumont and Nico should both be fired.
Not defending the trade, but let’s wait till the Lakers win something.
they don’t have to win anything for it to be considered a horrible trade
If your team runs on ‘good vibes’ then you need more than just a better GM.
It would be pointless to fire Nico at this point.
All I want is for the Lakers fans to chant, “Thank You Nico” every time the Mavs are in town.
It rhymes with Fire Nico, and the poor guy needs some love from someplace!!!
Fire Nico like yesterday!!!
DAL will never regain their fans trust with him in the job, as simple as!
Get rid of the guy who did the worst trade in the league’s history!!!
At this point just demote the whole team to the gleague
I’ll take AD and Cooper over Luka any day.
AD being banged up is not helpful. And Christie has just not found his place yet. Mavs have plenty of time to be a playoff team.
Awful trade….still. Mavs lack shot creation and play makers. Why don’t we start a 6’9 4 or 3 man who has never played in the NBA period letalone point guard then. That should work just fine. Said nobody ever. Is Kidd trying to get fired? We all know this trade was only to get Luka in a lakers uniform anyways.
Conspiracy theories like that take away from the reality of what a joke corporate shills like Nico are. They are littered across virtually every corporation in America. Justifying incompetence with toxic delusional marketing slogans that are backed up by equally toxic fake positivity vibes. Men like Nico should never be in close proximity to the kind of power that can alter the landscape of an entire sports league. Yet they always find themselves in those positions, because their even more grossly incompetent enablers sit on top of those organizations. Nico is a joke, but so is Dumont, who hired and enabled him. And so is Cuban that sold to him.