At a press conference on Monday afternoon, Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison discussed the shocking decision to trade Luka Doncic as well as the overwhelmingly negative reaction to it from fans, who have been chanting “fire Nico” since the deal was completed.
“I did know Luka was important to the Mavs’ fan base,” Harrison said, per RealGM. “I didn’t quite know to what level.
“But, really, the way we looked at it is if you’re putting a team on the floor that’s Kyrie [Irving], Klay [Thompson], P.J. [Washington], Anthony Davis and [Dereck] Lively, we felt that’s a championship-caliber team. And we would have been winning at a high level. That would have quieted some of the outrage. So unfortunately we weren’t able to do that, so it just went on and on.”
When asked why he should be able to keep his job, Harrison defended his Mavericks tenure, tweets Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News.
“Well, one, I think I’ve done a really good job here,” Harrison said. “And I don’t think I can be judged by the injuries this year. You have to judge the totality, from the beginning to end. I think I have a really good working relationship with [governor Patrick Dumont]. I think you add in Rick [Welts], the leadership we have is really elite and you’ll see next year when our team comes back. We’re going to be competing for a championship.”
Here’s more from Harrison’s press conference:
- Harrison was pressed on why the Mavericks couldn’t get more assets from the Lakers for Doncic. “I think the biggest thing is if you don’t value AD as an All-NBA player and All-Defensive player, then you’re not going to like the trade,” Harrison said, according to Curtis (Twitter link).
- The Mavs’ head of basketball operations said Dumont didn’t pressure him to make the deal, as Curtis relays (via Twitter). “Not at all. Patrick reminds me of the leadership that I had at Nike and a really good leader doesn’t tell the people that work for him what to do. It’s a collective, well thought out process to make a big move like that. Also, unfortunately, I’m super stubborn so someone telling me to do something doesn’t work too well for me.”
- Despite the intense backlash, Harrison claims his relationship with Dumont has actually been “strengthened” in the two-plus months since the trade was made, according to Marc Stein (Twitter link).
- Harrison said Davis won’t need surgery this offseason and he doesn’t believe Lively will either, per Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). Both players missed significant time with injuries, but were able to return before the team was eliminated in the play-in tournament.
- Regarding Kyrie Irving‘s $43.96MM player option for 2025/26, Harrison said he wasn’t sure if it would be exercised, but he’s confident the 33-year-old will be in a Mavericks uniform next season. “It’s too early to tell what Kyrie is going to do, but what I do feel is he’s going to be a Maverick next year,” Harrison said (Twitter link via Curtis).
While Atlanta seeks a new top front office executive, assistant general manager Onsi Saleh will replace Fields as GM on an interim basis, overseeing day-to-day basketball operations for the organization.
The 6’9″ forward submitted one of the most impressive seasons by a college freshman in recent memory, averaging 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.4 blocks in 30.7 minutes per game across 37 outings (all starts) for the Blue Devils.
While all three players put up monster numbers, Gilgeous-Alexander is generally considered the favorite to win the award due in large part to the Thunder’s team success this season. Oklahoma City won a league-high 68 regular season games, compared to 50 for Jokic’s Nuggets and 48 for Antetokounmpo’s Bucks.
This award, introduced in 2017 and named after longtime NBCA executive director Michael H. Goldberg, is voted on by the NBA’s 30 head coaches, none of whom can vote for himself.
“I think I’ve had a couple of surgeries in my career. I’ve had things I’ve had to deal with, you know, with an ankle or a knee, Achilles, calf, whatever it might be,” Lillard said. “But those are all things that you go to rehab, you deal with it like that, like an athlete would. I’m thinking that’s what I was going into, and then you see a blood clot. Obviously, that’s a thing that can affect your life.”
The Grizzlies scored the first seven points of the game and built a double-digit lead within the first five minutes. They never trailed en route to a 120-106 victory, locking up the No. 8 seed in the West and lining up a first-round series with the top-seeded Thunder.