At the Dallas Mavericks, general manager Nico Harrison is apparently still on the hot seat after Luka Doncic was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers.
“The increasing and constant negativity surrounding the franchise is causing problems and concern for the owners,” reports Marc Stein (The Stone Line). Mavs owner Patrick Dumont has been behind Harrison so far because he approved the Doncic trade.
Dumont wants to give Harrison more time despite the poor start to the season (3-7). However, according to Stein, the results and the mood around the team could lead to an untenable situation.
A dismissal of Harrison would not only be good for the “mood and to win back fans who have left,” wrote Stein. It is also about the fact that the person responsible for the criticized Doncic deal “cannot be the person who will lead the Mavs into the future.”
Still having trouble
Harrison was hired by then-owner Mark Cuban in 2021, with the sale of the Mavs to Dumont, Harrison’s role became even larger. The Mavericks reached the Finals in 2024, Doncic was sent to the West Coast the following February for Anthony Davis and a first-round pick in 2029.
The shock in Dallas was great; a change in mood only came with the draft lottery, which awarded the Mavericks the top pick with low probability and thus mega-talent Cooper Flagg. The versatile 2.06 meter man was considered by some to be the greatest talent since Anthony Davis, alongside whom he can now play.
However, Davis was injured after five games, and the other big men Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively also missed more than half of the season due to injuries.
With Flagg, head coach Jason Kidd is very keen to experiment; the 18-year-old is used a lot as the primary ball handler. So far without any visible success, Flagg didn’t get off to a good start to the season with 40.3 percent from the field and 27.0 percent from downtown. He averages 13.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.2 steals per game.