The Dallas Mavericks went to the NBA Finals in 2023-24, and now they’re firing GM Nico Harrison. After that, things went horribly wrong despite getting a gift in the number one overall pick, and as a result, the team is unsurprisingly moving on from Harrison. Many called for this after the Mavericks missed the playoffs last season, and now it’s about to become a reality.

Dallas Mavericks expected to fire embattled GM Nico Harrison

In the history of sports, there has maybe never been a more shocking trade than the Los Angeles Lakers dealing Anthony Davis and a first-round pick for Luka Doncic. It happened overnight out of the blue, prompting many to ask whether the reporter, Shams Charania, had been hacked. It felt impossible, but it was true.

Doncic, an All-NBA player and one who’d dragged his team to the Finals just the season prior, was out of Dallas in a stunning move. Fans were heartbroken, and the team was left in shambles. Things spiraled from there, and not even getting Cooper Flagg has saved them.

Doncic is one of the four best basketball players in the world (alongside Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Giannis Antetokounmpo) at worst, and his being traded at all was a surprise.

Combine that with the fact that all it essentially took was an aging star in Davis and a future first-round pick, and it becomes historically shocking. The Lakers got a top-four NBA player for a 2029 first-rounder and a 32-year-old player with an injury history. They also got Max Christie, but that’s not an impactful addition. The Lakers fleeced the Mavericks.

And to add to that, moving on from Doncic would be one thing, but that’s not all. Doncic was not in the best physical shape, and the Mavericks didn’t like that. They didn’t believe it would be financially viable to sign him to a supermax down the road, which is also a somewhat fair if misguided sentiment.

But if that’s the case, then they should’ve shopped him around. Doncic’s trade was kept secret between Nico Harrison and Rob Pelinka, and if the Mavericks had bothered trying to trade Doncic publicly, they would’ve gotten a better offer back. Teams would’ve mounted an unprecedented bidding war, and the Mavericks could’ve been really set up for the future.

Instead, Harrison pitched this as a win-now move. He wanted Davis to shore up the defense that was so porous with Doncic in it. “Defense wins championships,” he said. But then Davis got hurt, and with a massive usage rate in the absence of Doncic and Davis, Kyrie Irving tore his ACL. It was a disaster, and the Mavericks missed the playoffs.

Harrison might’ve been saved by the draft lottery, which unfairly gave Dallas the number one overall pick. Despite narrowly missing the playoffs, they got to pick Cooper Flagg, a generational, franchise-altering prospect. But so far, Flagg has been rough at times, Davis has been injured, and the Mavericks are bad. It doesn’t look like this situation can be turned around quickly, so Harrison is going to lose his job.

Fans chanted “Fire Nico” at home games the GM attended, so this is likely a welcome turn of events for the fan base that adored Doncic so. It’s just difficult to see what the answer is aside from a lengthy rebuild centering on Flagg. That Finals run was not that long ago, but it’s starting to feel like another lifetime. Doncic is now the face of the Lakers, someone who will lead them for the foreseeable future into the post-LeBron James era, and it’s all because Harrison and the ownership in Dallas apparently didn’t like Doncic as much as almost any other NBA team would have.