The Dallas Mavericks front office over the last decade has seen a lot of chaos and upheaval, something that doesn’t necessarily translate well to success. Former majority owner and now minority owner Mark Cuban has overseen the team through almost this entire reign, with many situations that hurt the franchise invariably being a result of his long-term decision-making. All this culminated with the Luka Doncic trade in February 2025.
Everyone knows that the Doncic trade was the brainchild of former GM Nico Harrison, who clandestinely negotiated the deal with Lakers GM Rob Pelinka. The reason Harrison had the power to make a trade of that magnitude was that Cuban had sold the franchise in 2023 to Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont. Harrison was closer to Dumont than Cuban, which led to the former majority owner getting pushed out of decisions.
Cuban has maintained he would’ve never allowed the Mavericks to trade Doncic, but Harrison had the power as GM at the time. Now, on ‘The Adam Friedland Show,’ Cuban revealed that Harrison had him pushed out of the team’s decision-making inner circle.
“Basically, Nico forced me out. The guy I hired got the new guy to basically trust him and ignore me.”
Cuban also openly said that hiring Harrison was a mistake in hindsight.
“Nico. Yeah, I hired him… Yeah (I regret it), in hindsight now, it was a mistake.”
Cuban made the decision to hire Nico Harrison as GM and Jason Kidd as head coach in the offseason of 2021 to replace the outgoing Donnie Nelson and Rick Carlisle GM-coach duo. It was to usher in a new era around third-year superstar guard Luka Doncic.
Key decisions over this era include losing Jalen Brunson for nothing, trading Kristaps Porzingis as an expiring contract just two years after giving up multiple first-round draft picks to acquire him, and failed center signings such as Christian Wood and JaVale McGee. However, from February 2023 to February 2024, Harrison’s front office made a series of perfect moves.
They traded for Kyrie Irving at a low price, drafted Dereck Lively II, and made the acquisitions of Derrick Jones Jr., P.J. Washington, and Daniel Gafford to create the backbone of the squad around Doncic for their 2024 NBA Finals appearance. This is also when Cuban sold the team, leading to him losing control despite apparent promises that he would run basketball operations for the team.
All that 2024 success is already a very old memory, as the Doncic trade set the Mavericks back years after coming so close to the mountaintop. Harrison paid for the Doncic trade with his job, as the new front office has already undone the Doncic deal by trading away Anthony Davis for expiring contracts and low-value first-round picks.
Cuban’s input is once again welcome, as Matt Ricardi and Mavericks legend Michael Finley run the front office as co-GMs. While the team might need more fixing to truly undo the mistakes of the Doncic era (no controlled first-round picks after 2026 until 2030), they at least have a north star in Cooper Flagg to rally around.
