The Dallas Mavericks and Luka Doncic seemed destined to be together for the next decade-plus, until Nico Harrison decided he’d had enough.
For longtime fans of the Dallas Mavericks, Luka Doncic seemed to be a godsend. Just as franchise legend Dirk Nowitzki was wrapping up his storied career, Doncic won Rookie of the Year in the legend’s final season. He would go on to make five All-NBA first teams in a row, more than Dirk ever made in his career, and the franchise icon gleefully passed the torch to Doncic.
Dallas embraced Doncic, and Doncic embraced Dallas right back. He called himself a “real Texan,” wore a cowboy hat, and famously referenced a horny toad in 2023, the Texan state reptile.
It seemed like he would follow in Nowitski’s footsteps, and in 2024 he led Dallas back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2011. Fans were expecting the team to become playoff staples for the rest of Doncic’s prime, but in February, Mavericks’ general manager Nico Harrison shocked the world, trading him to the Los Angeles Lakers.
It’s not often that a franchise gets someone who is expected to pass a legend. Anthony Edwards might go down as the best Minnesota Timberwolves player, passing Kevin Garnett, and Victor Wembanyama is expected to surpass Tim Duncan.
Luka was supposed to be that for the Dallas Mavericks, but Harrison and new owner Patrick Dumont just didn’t see a long-term future with Doncic.
For years, “keeping Luka comfortable” was priority number one in Dallas, but that suddenly shifted late this offseason.
“If you want to pinpoint a precise time when it was no longer the top organizational priority, you’d have to go back to when Mark Cuban sold the majority control of the team,” revealed Tim MacMahon on an episode of Locked on Mavericks.
“I know Cuban has had some online back and forth and made some comments recently, basically implying that a gentleman’s agreement wasn’t held up by Patrick Dumont. So maybe Cuban really thought he was going to get his billions and keep his toy… As soon as the deal was done, Cuban no longer had control.”
MacMahon went on to reveal that Dallas had very real concerns about Doncic’s long-term durability.
Both Dumont and Harrison cited a lack of conditioning, work ethic, and reliability as reasons for trading Doncic, and MacMahon agreed that those concerns, at least to the parties involved, were real.
“Nico had a good trade deadline last year,” he continued. “He thinks Luka’s going to break down physically…Repeated calf strains with condition concerns, like, I get it’s a reason to worry. You know, and what could come next? Like, there’s a legitimate reason to worry. And so they felt like the Supermax would be a terrible investment.”
Last season, not only did Doncic lead the NBA in scoring and take the Mavericks to the Finals, but he played in 70 games, showing a decent amount of durability. However, a nagging calf injury, a new wrist injury, and offseason weight gain quickly turned the front office off of him.
Even last season, the Mavericks campaigned for him to win MVP over Nikola Jokic, and he did have a real case. He averaged 33.9 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 9.8 assists in the regular season.
“The Mavericks just couldn’t believe he wouldn’t be the MVP last year,” MacMahon revealed.
“Took this team to the finals, led the postseason and points, rebounds, assists, steals, minutes, never been done before. Pretty impressive season. And at some point on the heels of that, Nico decided that they probably need to move on from the Luca Doncic business.”
While Harrison likely knows more than the average fan, Dallas fans all know one truth: you don’t trade away your best player after an all-time season, and you don’t trash him on the way out.
Despite some level of justification for the trade, Harrison remains public enemy number one in Dallas.
