Dallas Mavericks General Manager Nico Harrison doesn’t appear to be in the good graces of executives around the league after the Luka Doncic trade. Los Angeles Lakers GM Rob Pelinka was the only one Harrison discussed a deal with, and according to ESPN, it’s led to some fury and jealousy.
“Executives from around the league were both furious and jealous that the glitzy, star-driven Lakers had been the only team given an opportunity to bid for Doncic’s services.”
You can understand their frustrations. There isn’t a team in the league that wouldn’t have wanted to acquire a generational talent like Doncic, and only one of them got the opportunity to land him. The only other team to have the faintest idea about this deal before it went down was the third team involved, the Utah Jazz.
They didn’t know who the pieces involved were, though. ESPN reported that the Jazz and their CEO, Danny Ainge, only found out they were helping the Lakers land Doncic about 30-60 minutes before the move was finalized.
You’d imagine a Boston Celtics legend like Ainge might have declined to help if he’d known and it might be why the Jazz were informed so late. Talk about sneaky business. The Jazz ended up absorbing Jalen Hood-Schifino’s contract for two second-round picks to get this deal over the line.
What made Harrison’s decision to only speak to the Lakers so puzzling was that simple logic dictates you’d want to start a bidding war when looking to part with a superstar. Some teams in the league would have been willing to give up numerous draft picks and youngsters or even stars for Doncic but the Mavs GM didn’t even explore that possibility. So, why did Harrison go this route? Well, here’s why.
“Harrison decided early on, team sources said, that the best way to trade a player of Doncic’s caliber was to pick the trade that he wanted, rather than open up the process, to avoid Doncic and his agent exerting their own leverage. It would also avoid the crippling fan backlash that might influence the deal.”
That’s an interesting line of thought. Had it gotten leaked at some point that the Mavericks were looking to trade Doncic, you can be sure that the fans would have been up in arms. They would have caused an uproar and perhaps ownership might have had to step in and end trade talks.
The secrecy ensured the deal went through without any pushback from fans but they are fuming now. Some Mavericks fans protested the Doncic trade by bringing a coffin to the American Airlines Center. Many online seem to be done supporting the Mavs and you struggle to imagine the last time a fanbase was this upset with their team. It’s hard to say who’s more upset by this trade, Mavericks fans or rival executives.
Getting back to that report, Harrison felt the best way to trade Doncic was to look for who he wanted on the Mavericks, and that was Anthony Davis. So, he approached the Lakers, and while that’s a logical step, the issue is he didn’t get a good enough package in the end.
The Mavericks only received Davis, Max Christie, and an unprotected 2029 first-round pick from the Lakers for Doncic. They should have gotten more and it turns out Harrison did initially want more.
According to Kirk Goldsberry, Harrison wanted Davis, Dalton Knecht, and multiple first-round picks for Doncic. Pelinka, however, managed to convince him that the Slovenian’s health and drinking habits made this a risky deal for the Lakers and they got him at a great price.
Harrison was worried that Doncic and his agent would use their leverage if they found out the team was looking to trade him. That could have resulted in the Mavericks not getting a great package in return, but it ended up being the case anyway.
This was a poor haul and they would have gotten a much better package even if Doncic, who is averaging 28.1 points, 8.3 rebounds, 7.8 assists, 2.0 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game in 2024-25, had exerted his leverage. All things considered, you fear this might just go down as the worst trade in NBA history. Harrison, though, believes he got this right, and time will tell if he did.
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