Nico Harrison, the general manager of the Dallas Mavericks, acknowledged that he miscalculated the deep affection fans have for star player Luka Doncic. Harrison was very frank concerning the recent trade that moved Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis. He further noted his surprise at the severity of the retaliation from the fanbase.
Harrison, who noted the importance of Doncic to Mavericks fans, stated, “I did know that Luka was important to the fan base, but I didn’t quite know it to what level.” The general manager expected tons of blowback from the fans but knew that it was what had to be done to secure the long-running team’s future.
The Mavericks earned the last berth in the Western Conference play-in tournament a year ago, as the No. 10 seed. Nevertheless, they were looking out at a very difficult year to come. In fact, they came within a hair of not having enough players to field an NBA minimum roster for a few games. As great as Harrison has been, he stressed that the team needed to get healthy to become contenders again.
Honestly, we just need to get well,” he added. That I believe the team we’re bringing back is a championship caliber. We absolutely look forward to having Kyrie join us again next summer when he recovers from his injury. And we hope to be contending for a championship at that time.
Even with the Doncic trade, Harrison is still encouraged by what the Mavericks have started to put together. He’s a firm believer that the right approach is to build around Anthony Davis to create the strongest possible foundation for a championship team. While his counterpart Davis had a miserable season overall, forced to miss most of the year with various maladies.
Harrison insisted on the adage that defense will win championships long before it became a cliché. As he put it, “Defense wins championships,” a mantra that summed up his approach to overhauling the team.
The Mavericks now have their own pick to select 11th in the first round of this year’s draft. To their credit, Harrison in particular feels confident they’ll be able to attract a solid candidate. “We feel that’s a championship-caliber team and we would have been winning at a high level, and that would have quieted some of the outrage,” he explained.
On his relationship with Doncic, Harrison acknowledged that there hasn’t been enough communication between the two so far. “I feel the same way he does. I’ve actually never spoken ill of Luka, and I’m just ready to move on with this team that we have,” he stated.
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