The Dallas Mavericks have fired their general manager Nico Harrison, the man who was the architect of one of the most controversial trades in NBA history as Luka Dončić was sent to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Golden State Warriors veteran Draymond Green took a surprising stance by defending Harrison on his podcast. Green said that Harris is being unfairly blamed because the rotation he had in mind when making that trade has not been able to be on the floor, largely due to forces out of his control like Kyrie Irving's torn ACL.
Draymond Green takes surprising stance on Nico Harrison
It is a fair point, but results matter and the Mavericks are 3-8 on the season. Maybe things would be faring better without the injuries, but it seems that maybe ownership does not have the same vision that Harrison had for the team when he executed that shocking trade which sent the NBA world into a frenzy.
Things overall in Dallas seem to be a mess. Former Warriors star Klay Thompson has been benched and his career is very clearly going in the wrong direction. The Mavs briefly replaced him in the lineup with another former Warrior in D'Angelo Russell, yet that didn't fare much better.
So many things have gone wrong in Dallas since the trade, which is why it seems the organization has decided to pull the plug on Harrison. He was made a laughingstock after the Dončić trade and many Mavericks fans wanted him gone on the spot. If things continue on their current trajectory, it will end up as one of the worst trades in the history of professional sports.
It would not be surprising if the Mavericks started trading some of their other assets to recoup value before the mid-season deadline. Thompson doesn't seem like a good fit there at this point so it wouldn't be a shock if he was traded, while Anthony Davis, the big return for Dallas in the Dončić trade, seems like he could be on the move as well.
The team would probably be best served trading off its veterans so they can build around Cooper Flagg who they selected with the first overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
Draymond's support of Harrison is a bit surprising, but he is surely not afraid to take a contrarian view like that or speak his mind even if it's unpopular. That included calling out some of his own teammates for Golden State's sluggish play of late, hoping that it might give the team a jolt and help them get on a run across the current six-game road trip.