The repercussions from the humongous Luka Doncic trade on Feb. 1 are still very palpable these days. Doncic has revitalized a Los Angeles Lakers team that seemed like it had gone stale over the last season or two, and he has made it into a legitimate championship contender as the playoffs are about to begin.
Meanwhile, the Dallas Mavericks, Doncic’s former team, managed to reach the play-in tournament, but they have had to deal with several key injuries since gift-wrapping Doncic to the Purple and Gold. Anthony Davis, the main piece they got back in that trade, instantly went down with an adductor injury in his first game with them and had to sit for several weeks. Even worse, All-Star guard Kyrie Irving suffered a torn ACL that ended his season.
Mavs fans have been vociferously calling for general manager Nico Harrison to be fired for making the Doncic deal. But he said he doesn’t regret making it.
Via ESPN:
“There’s no regrets on the trade,” said Harrison, whose only other media availability since the trade was a brief pregame session the following day in Cleveland. “Part of my job is to do the best thing for the Mavericks, not only today, but also in the future, and some of the decisions I’m going to make are going to be unpopular. That’s my job, and I have to stand by it.”
There were those who felt perhaps the Mavs could be a dark-horse team following the trade, especially since Davis remains a legitimate superstar big man. But there are also people who feel the injuries the team has suffered may be a sign it has brought bad karma on itself because of the trade.
As he did immediately following the trade, Harrison said he executed it because of the defensive end of the court.
“Well, the beauty of Dallas is it is a passionate fan base,” Harrison said. “For us to reach our goals, we need that fan base. And to be honest with you, every trade I’ve made since I’ve been here has not been regarded as a good trade, and so sometimes it takes time. When I traded for Kyrie, it was met with a lot of skepticism and it was graded as a terrible trade and you didn’t see it right away, but eventually everyone agreed that that was a great trade. When I traded for [Daniel Gafford] and [P.J. Washington] again, it was like, ‘Oh, he gave up way too much. These guys aren’t going to help us.’ Now that trade, you saw the evidence a lot sooner. So I think a lot of times trades take a little bit of time.
“But our philosophy, like I said, going forward is defense wins championships and we’re built on defense. And this trade cements us for that.”
Even though Dallas finished fifth in the Western Conference last season, it reached the NBA Finals, thanks largely to some big performances from Doncic. He has demonstrated his ability to elevate his team above the sum of its parts, and that ability could very well result in a world championship for the Lakers in roughly two months.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Mavericks GM doesn’t regret trading Luka Doncic to the Lakers
The repercussions from the humongous Luka Doncic trade on Feb. 1 are still very palpable these days. Doncic has revitalized a Los Angeles Lakers team that seemed like it had gone stale over the last season or two, and he has made it into a legitimate championship contender as the playoffs are about to begin.
Meanwhile, the Dallas Mavericks, Doncic’s former team, managed to reach the play-in tournament, but they have had to deal with several key injuries since gift-wrapping Doncic to the Purple and Gold. Anthony Davis, the main piece they got back in that trade, instantly went down with an adductor injury in his first game with them and had to sit for several weeks. Even worse, All-Star guard Kyrie Irving suffered a torn ACL that ended his season.
Mavs fans have been vociferously calling for general manager Nico Harrison to be fired for making the Doncic deal. But he said he doesn’t regret making it.
Via ESPN:
“There’s no regrets on the trade,” said Harrison, whose only other media availability since the trade was a brief pregame session the following day in Cleveland. “Part of my job is to do the best thing for the Mavericks, not only today, but also in the future, and some of the decisions I’m going to make are going to be unpopular. That’s my job, and I have to stand by it.”
There were those who felt perhaps the Mavs could be a dark-horse team following the trade, especially since Davis remains a legitimate superstar big man. But there are also people who feel the injuries the team has suffered may be a sign it has brought bad karma on itself because of the trade.
As he did immediately following the trade, Harrison said he executed it because of the defensive end of the court.
“Well, the beauty of Dallas is it is a passionate fan base,” Harrison said. “For us to reach our goals, we need that fan base. And to be honest with you, every trade I’ve made since I’ve been here has not been regarded as a good trade, and so sometimes it takes time. When I traded for Kyrie, it was met with a lot of skepticism and it was graded as a terrible trade and you didn’t see it right away, but eventually everyone agreed that that was a great trade. When I traded for [Daniel Gafford] and [P.J. Washington] again, it was like, ‘Oh, he gave up way too much. These guys aren’t going to help us.’ Now that trade, you saw the evidence a lot sooner. So I think a lot of times trades take a little bit of time.
“But our philosophy, like I said, going forward is defense wins championships and we’re built on defense. And this trade cements us for that.”
Even though Dallas finished fifth in the Western Conference last season, it reached the NBA Finals, thanks largely to some big performances from Doncic. He has demonstrated his ability to elevate his team above the sum of its parts, and that ability could very well result in a world championship for the Lakers in roughly two months.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Mavericks GM doesn’t regret trading Luka Doncic to the Lakers
