Nico Harrison will in perpetuity remain known as the general manager who, on the night of Feb. 1, 2025, inexplicably tossed Luka Doncic overboard and shipwrecked the Dallas Mavericks.
One year and three days later, Harrison’s co-interim replacements, Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi, performed a commendable containment of the NBA’s Exxon Valdez calamity.
If you don’t know, kids, Google it. The Valdez oil spill was one of history’s worst environmental and public relations disasters.
The Mavericks lessened their PR woes with last November’s firing of Harrison. And with Wednesday’s blockbuster trade that sent Anthony Davis to Washington, Dallas patched the gash in its hull and diluted the toxic slick by lowering its 2026-27 payroll from $221.3M to $154.1M.
Mavericks
The trade has not been announced by the NBA or the Mavericks, but multiple people with knowledge of the deal confirmed its details to The Dallas Morning News.
There is time for more Mavericks cleansing before Thursday’s 2 p.m. NBA trade deadline, but, regardless, the franchise’s rebuild around young star Cooper Flagg formally has commenced.
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It’s a hard reset. A full course correction. In barely a year, the Mavericks’ ship has been rechristened from the SS Doncic (age 25); to very briefly the SS Davis (age 31) to the SS Flagg (just turned 19).
As Mavericks coach Jason Kidd noted Tuesday night, before his team suffered its fifth straight loss, at home to Boston, the trade deadline is an annual reminder of the sport’s business side.
“I think that’s in the small print of the contract,” he said of players being on edge this time of year. “Sometimes we don’t look at that or read that, but that’s just being a pro.
“That’s just the nature of the business. Sometimes it gets in the way.”
Naturally, Wednesday’s Mavericks news, amid a flurry of trades across the NBA, brought varying reactions from reporters and fans.
Along with Davis, the Mavericks will send to the Wizards Jaden Hardy, D’Angelo Russell and Dante Exum. Dallas will receive Khris Middleton, AJ Johnson, Malaki Branham, Marvin Bagley III, two first-round picks and three second-round picks.
Besides Davis, the other players involved in the deal are largely immaterial. Former Texas A&M standout and three-time NBA All-Star Middleton, Branham and Bagley are on expiring contracts. Johnson’s 2024 rookie deal is only guaranteed through 2026-27, with a cap hit of $3.2 million that season.
From the Mavericks’ perspective, the trade was about creating financial flexibility and draft pick replenishment for a franchise that, until Wednesday, had little of either.
And the act of sending Davis to Washington does 10-time All-Star Davis and Mavericks fans a psychological favor.
Davis, in Harrison’s view, was the linchpin of the Doncic trade. He was supposed to provide Dallas inside dominance, offensively and defensively.
But after scoring 26 points, pulling down 16 rebounds, dealing seven assists and blocking three shots in 30 minutes of his Feb. 8, 2025 Mavericks debut at home against Houston, Davis got hurt in the third quarter and missed the next 18 games.
Due to subsequent, repeated injuries, Davis appeared only eight more times last season and in 20 games this season. He wound up playing in only 29 games of a potential 83.
As fans noted on social media Wednesday, that’s even fewer games than the 46 that Rajon Rondo played in his ill-fated Mavericks season of 2014-15.
Meanwhile, of course, Doncic has continued to star for the Los Angeles Lakers, having earlier this week been named Western Conference Player of the Month for January.
With Davis now gone, one way to measure the Mavericks’ net gain of trading Doncic is as follows: guard Max Christie; the four Wizards players acquired Wednesday; three first-round picks and three second-round picks.
On one hand, that still seems like a paltry return for a generational and still young talent like Doncic. On the other, it’s a lot more than Dallas had before Wednesday, with Davis perpetually in street clothes.
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And now the Mavericks have more financial flexibility to rebuild around Flagg.
Before Wednesday, Dallas was projected to be $22.8 million above the NBA’s luxury tax threshold entering next season; now it is projected to be $44.3 million under the luxury tax threshold.
And now the Mavericks have additional draft picks besides their first-round pick of 2026, which until Wednesday was going to be the only first-round pick they had in their control until 2030.
Perhaps the additional picks, and financial flexibility, can enable Dallas to acquire established talent to build around Flagg, instead of a painstaking draft-by-draft timeline.
Most important, the fallout of last February’s Doncic trade doesn’t look as calamitous as it had for the past year.
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