The Los Angeles Lakers are revelling in their Slovenian superstar handed to them on a platter but Paul Pierce says Nico Harrison is not the biggest problem.
The Luka Doncic trade is set to dominate discussion for years to come and it will become fever pitch as the Los Angeles Lakers progress in the playoffs.
The Dallas Mavericks traded him to win a championship, in Nico Harrison’s words. However, while the Mavericks are in the play-in scrap, Lakers are first-round favourites against the Timberwolves.
Harrison is catching a lot of flak for Doncic’s trade and his own comments haven’t helped much, but Paul Pierce identified a much deeper problem for the trade that is plaguing multiple teams in the NBA.
Despite what Harrison and the Mavericks seem intent on making the fans believe, it’s hard to agree with the notion that any team in the league is better off by not having Luka Doncic on it.
The transformation has been clear to see on the Lakers too, who were flirting with play-in when Doncic arrived and immediately catapulted themselves up the standings.
Pierce spoke on Skip Bayless show and agreed with Bayless that Harrison’s reasoning behind the Doncic trade made sense even though it didn’t work out.
Bayless said: “Nico Harrison was betting on this year, and maybe next year to flip a switch with AD and Kyrie but that went right out the window immediately [due to injuries]. He doubled down on this year, went for broke and he busted. Now it’s looking bad.”
Pierce agreed with Bayless and said that despite Harrison getting ‘busted’, the real problem lies elsewhere.
He said: “What does this say about ownership? Think about the two new owners [Dallas and Phoenix]. Tried to make a splash but completely busted. There’s some bad owners out here.
“They don’t know much about the game. They just want to make a splash and it just doesn’t look good. We need more guys who’ve been around the game to get more into ownership groups because it’s just bad.”
Pierce makes an interesting point often lost in the discussion and hatred for Harrison that the Mavericks GM might just be the face of a decision by the owners.
Mark Cuban’s unequivocal backing for Doncic is almost mythical at this point and Harrison has been at Dallas from his time as well.
Why, then, was Doncic traded after the change in ownership when the GM didn’t change? That points to this being a decision driven by the owners.
It’s completely possible that Harrison led the decision-making on this one and this had been bubbling beneath the surface, with only Cuban stopping it.
However, the owners are getting away largely scot-free as Harrison has become the face of this farcical decision, justifying it everywhere and only digging a deeper hole for himself.
Imagine making a trade so bad that conspiracy theories sound truer than sporting reasons!
