Inside Nico Harrison’s Takeover of the Dallas Mavericks and the Luka Dončić Trade
Inside Nico Harrison’s takeover of the Mavericks, the Luka Dončić trade fallout, power struggles, medical missteps, and the unraveling of a franchise identity.
The Dallas Mavericks didn’t just trade Luka Dončić. They gutted the heart of their franchise, dismissed decades of continuity, and handed the keys to a general manager executing a quiet but aggressive consolidation of power.
As Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison prepares to speak on camera for the first time in Dallas since the February trade that sent Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers, a trail of actions and absences paints a picture far larger than a roster reshuffle. What began as a shocking transaction has since evolved essentially into a philosophical coup — a dismantling of the Mark Cuban-Dirk Nowitzki-Luka Dončić era of Mavericks basketball in favor of a vision centered around Harrison’s philosophy and personnel.
With each staff change and public silence, the Mavericks' front office under Harrison has not only distanced itself from the past — it has actively erased it. Given the trade fallout, a power vacuum appears to be brewing if Mavericks ownership opts to make a change that many in Dallas have loudly requested.
Inside the Dončić Trade and Internal Fallout
When the Mavericks traded Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers on February 1, it sent shockwaves throughout the NBA. But internally, the decision had been building. According to sources, the story communicated to the outside world tends to involve a belief within the Mavericks’ basketball operations that the franchise had already peaked with Dončić, citing the 2022 Western Conference Finals and 2024 NBA Finals as the furthest they would go with him as the centerpiece. While many would find that to be an indefensible position, that is how Harrison sees it.
Publicly, Harrison framed the decision as a philosophical shift, often describing it as “defense wins championships.” Sources indicated to DallasHoopsJournal.com that the front office’s story was to find a new path: build a dominant defense around Anthony Davis, Daniel Gafford, and Dereck Lively II, while getting “enough” offense from Kyrie Irving. But privately, sources say the original reasoning had little to do with the scheme or defense.
Dončić’s handling of his left calf injury, which he suffered on Christmas Day against the Minnesota Timberwolves, was the first attempt he’s taken at fully recovering from an injury. However, this became a bizarre rallying cry and an opportunity for the Mavericks’ perceived justification to intensify the trade, but there’s even more to consider. Dončić’s team believed a more extended recovery timetable was necessary, and there was a sentiment that he returned too soon from his heel contusion that caused him to miss two games after a 45-point triple-double he produced while leading a 143-133 road victory against the Golden State Warriors on Dec. 15.
Some of the intel from the Harrison-led basketball operations department featured a belief from the Mavericks’ medical team that Dončić should have returned from the calf strain within three weeks, clearly marking a disagreement on the severity of the injury. Sources long indicated that Dončić long targeted a return on Feb. 8 against the Houston Rockets, as DallasHoopsJournal.com previously reported. Dončić’s return to competition was slightly delayed due to being traded, but he made his Lakers debut on Feb. 10 against the Utah Jazz.
Even Dumont, by Harrison’s admission, initially laughed when the idea of trading Dončić was floated. Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka reportedly thought Harrison was joking when trade discussions began. But it was Harrison who pursued the deal with conviction, and it was Dumont who gave him the green light. Sources informed DallasHoopsJournal.com that among the factors that led Dumont to provide the green light was an interaction he had with Dončić, focused on addressing perceived conditioning concerns. This occurred before Harrison initiated trade talks for Dončić at his coffee meeting with Pelinka in Dallas before the Mavericks faced the Lakers on Jan. 7. As one might expect, that interaction involving Dončić and Dumont did not go well. Weeks later, Dončić was traded, with a heavy run of media leaks emphasizing conditioning to follow.
The intel provided to Dumont by the Harrison-led basketball operations department enabled Harrison to obtain permission to make the controversial trade to acquire a player he had long sought, Davis. Dumont doubled down on that narrative just days after the trade, further illustrating how effective the Harrison regime’s selling of this problem proved to be. In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Dumont made his position unmistakably clear. The man who had just authorized the trade of a generational superstar had publicly questioned Dončić’s commitment.
“If you look at the greats in the league, the people you and I grew up with — [Michael] Jordan, [Larry] Bird, Kobe [Bryant], Shaq [O’Neal] — they worked really hard, every day, with a singular focus to win,” Dumont said. “And if you don’t have that, it doesn’t work. And if you don’t have that, you shouldn’t be part of the Dallas Mavericks. That’s who we want. I’m unwavering on this. The entire organization knows this. This is how I operate outside of basketball. This is the only way to be competitive and win. If you want to take a vacation, don’t do it with us.”
The Mavericks' internal version of events immediately highlighted a breakdown in communication with team leadership, making trading him unavoidable. In January, Dončić did not travel with the team for its most extended road trip of the season while recovering from the calf strain, which despite not being unusual for Mavericks players to not travel with the team when rehab isn’t aided by doing so and a return to competition isn’t targeted within that time frame, was used by Harrison to his advantage in building a case.
Dončić chose to continue working with his personal performance team in Dallas, including strength coach Anže Maček and physiotherapist Javier Barrio Calvo, rather than risk reaggravating the injury while flying across the country The Mavericks’ version of events in the immediate aftermath of the trade included mentions of feeling they were being "held hostage" by Dončić, and expressed that he "stopped communicating" during rehab. Tensions boiled over.
The rationale becomes impossible to defend when considering that Dončić was often present at the facility during that stretch and made a surprisingly quick return to basketball activities. However, after using a scooter to get around initially, he still used minimal lift on spot shots during a period when the Mavericks felt he should already be playing again. This became a sentiment for Dallas that Dončić was “taking a vacation.”
Sources close to Dončić had conveyed the opposite just weeks before the trade, emphasizing how eager Dončić was to compete. He was doing multiple on-court workouts per day and wanted access to the weight room to continue his rehab. A road trip without practices would have naturally complicated this, as he knew he wasn’t going to play, which included an afternoon game in Cleveland. A trade was not necessary due to this injury situation. Instead, it was used opportunistically by decision-makers to execute a plan.
Members of the Lakers, who now work with Dončić daily, have been impressed by his professionalism and approach. Sources say his work habits are consistent with what he did in Dallas. He continues to lean on his personal performance team on game days, practice days, and off days. Nothing is different except the jersey.
Based on intel about Davis from earlier stages of his career, the media leaks targeting Dončić read like a scene from a twisted episode of The Twilight Zone.
Sources from previous stops in Davis’ career recall complaints from some close to the star forward that he tended to start his offseason program within a month of training camp, which was seen as a factor in his body breaking down during the season. It’s also common to hear from people from Davis’ previous career stops that an early career lack of interest in resistance work has played a role in various lower-body injuries.
It was Davis who made the decision for him to play on Feb. 10 — an earlier date than when he was expected to return with the Lakers. If he had to do it again, he expressed he’d have waited a game or two. He made this decision despite not having the proper equipment that he used during his rehab process after joining the Mavericks in Philadelphia. He played in the Mavericks’ first home game after the lengthy five-game road trip, suffering a non-contact injury he described as “nothing serious” late in the third quarter that sidelined him for over the next six weeks.
The reality is that Davis’ adductor strain is a connected injury to his groin. It was common to see him grabbing at that area during games, even after returning at a time when many within the organization felt it was best to shut it down due to a limited ceiling amid Irving’s torn ACL. Despite numerous periodic attempts by DallasHoopsJournal.com to contact Davis’ representation to confirm whether surgery has been ruled out, requests for comment were ignored.
Dereck Lively II’s stress fracture became a point of tension for the Mavericks, and it is not ruled out that surgery could be necessary. Lively received an X-ray in mid-January, and the results were negative. He traveled to Charlotte and went through a complete pre-game workout on January 20. However, he went from questionable to being ruled out and went on to miss over two months due to a stress fracture after imaging determined the diagnosis. "Symptoms probably persisted and began not to align with the clinical presentation of an ankle sprain, most likely prompting follow-up imaging — probably MRI or CT scan, or both," a former NBA Performance & Rehabilitation Director explained to DallasHoopsJournal.com in January. While it’s a positive that Lively’s injury was identified, this is now being used as a sign of incompetence.
"It actually goes to show the strength of our medical team, because he was cleared to play, but his signs and symptoms where our medical team knew it was something more," Harrison said. "So that's why they went and tested them again and saw the CT scan, which they actually avoided a potential catastrophic injury. So you know, you will take the angle of being negative, but it's actually a positive thing, because they saw with the symptoms, even though he was cleared to play, they didn't feel right putting him on the floor. And so they went back. They stopped him from playing. They went back. They retested, and thank God we saw that he had a stress fracture."
While injuries are naturally part of the game, the Mavericks’ handling of various key situations exacerbated their problems. Players tend to push through injuries because they want to play, but it’s up to the organization’s medical staff to balance it so as not to risk reaggravation or a connected injury to the root issue.
In addition to Davis’ premature return to competition, P.J. Washington admitted on the record that he probably came back too soon from a one-game absence caused by a sprained ankle. He played 15 minutes on March 1 against the Milwaukee Bucks before aggravating his injury, which sidelined him for over two additional weeks. This was at a time when the Mavericks were already playing without Davis, Lively, and Daniel Gafford.
Harrison did not help the Mavericks organization by facilitating trades at the deadline for injured players, which only made the situation worse. Davis’ situation worsened after the trade, but the trade to acquire Caleb Martin in exchange for Quentin Grimes and what is now the 35th pick in this year’s NBA Draft proved to be malpractice. The move was clearly to work ahead on next year’s roster, while publicly portraying it as a win-now move. It increased Dallas’ 2024-25 payroll to a point that it hard-capped the roster with only 14 players while trading a healthy Grimes for Martin, who went on to miss over another month, at a time when injuries were already mounting.
The organization’s unwillingness to pay Grimes a number his representation sought on a contract extension led to a damaging move in the short term. Making matters worse, Grimes went on to average 21.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 4.5 assists in 28 games in Philadelphia. At the same time, Martin didn’t debut until March 7 and went on to make at least one 3-pointer in only two of his 16 games played while carrying a minutes restriction and going scoreless in the play-in tournament. Instead of rescinding the trade for Martin when the NBA stepped in amid a flagged physical, Dallas went through with it still after Philadelphia added a 2030 second-round pick.
The Martin trade prevented the Mavericks from signing a 15th player on the roster until April 10, causing the team to play consecutive games with only eight available players. Keep in mind that this trade was made while injuries had already been a concern for many weeks before the trade deadline. Many salary cap experts have described this as an act of malpractice.
Signs of leadership failure were not as clear to spot, given that Harrison was coming off a Finals run, but early cracks in the foundation were already evident. Within weeks of the Finals run, Harrison declared re-signing Derrick Jones Jr. as “Priority 1A, 1B,” with an implication in the reporting that an agent change had complicated the process, raising doubts about his outlook for re-signing.
It was known that Jones was taking agent meetings as early as the Western Conference semifinals. Despite the Mavericks’ version of events ahead of free agency, Jones still signed on Day 1 of free agency, but with the LA Clippers for a three-year, $30 million deal. Dallas teed up a three-year, $27 million deal for Naji Marshall, already replacing its self-described top priority despite not coming with a full non-tax mid-level exception contract offer.
Additionally, Irving’s ACL tear was a contact injury with the root cause being landing on Jonas Valančiūnas’s foot. However, while Irving felt more than prepared to handle a league-leading workload after the Dončić trade, the organization was potentially putting Irving at risk by doing so. From Christmas Day until March 2, Irving averaged 38.2 minutes per game across 23 games, trailing only Josh Hart (38.7) and Tyrese Maxey (38.7), before tearing his ACL on March 3 against the Kings. Irving was actively navigating a bulging disc injury throughout the season.
At this point, there is already internal admission from some within Mavericks basketball operations that the Dončić deal is already a bad trade. But it’s the reality the team lives in at this point for the long haul.
The Purge of "Friends of Luka" and Cuban’s Growing Distance
Before Dončić was traded, those closest to him within the organization were quietly let go. The dismissals of longtime staffers like head athletic trainer Casey Smith, strength and conditioning chief Jeremy Holsopple, and performance director Casey Spangler weren’t accompanied by public explanations. These weren’t just employees — they were deeply trusted figures to both Dončić and Nowitzki. They were also holdovers from the Cuban era.
Comparably, tenured Mavericks voices replaced none. Instead, Harrison brought in his own hires and new-age personnel. What was publicly labeled as a shift in performance strategy was, in reality, the dismantling of a trust infrastructure that connected the franchise's past to its future. By the time Dončić was traded, his closest institutional allies had already been gone.
Cuban’s sale of the Mavericks to Miriam Adelson came with an expectation of retaining basketball operations control. Cuban has since said that the NBA blocked that clause. Meanwhile, Dumont handed control to Harrison instead. When the trade went down, Cuban was not consulted.
As Cuban revealed on the "Your Mom's House" podcast in March, he learned of the deal via text after it had already been completed.
"I get a text. It was from our general manager. I thought he was asking me what I thought, and then I realized very quickly he was telling me what happened," Cuban recalled. "And I told him I didn't agree with it... but it wasn't my decision to make."
Cuban has since gone public with his opposition to the deal multiple times. In an interview with WFAA, he criticized the return package, saying that with "four unprotected No. 1s and Anthony Davis and Max Christie, this would be a different conversation." He stopped short of saying whether he would have traded Dončić at all but made clear it wouldn’t have happened under his control.
Then, in a later podcast appearance, Cuban removed all ambiguity:
"If I had any influence, the trade wouldn’t happen," he said. "I was just as dumbfounded as everybody else. After I sold the Mavericks, the new owner Patrick Dumont, decided that, 'O.K., in Nico we trust.' So, here we are."
He expressed his appreciation for Dončić directly: "I loved Luka. ... We had a good relationship, got along great with his dad."
While Cuban was once the most visible and vocal owner in the NBA, he now holds only a minority stake. He has no official control over the basketball operations he once managed. The Dončić trade was the most definitive sign yet that the Cuban era is over, and it happened without his input or consent.
Harrison long telegraphed his future pursuit of Davis, a player with whom he often shared on-court interactions before games, before the Mavericks faced the Lakers. When speculation began about a potential move, the thought was about how the Mavericks could pair Davis with Dončić. Instead, Harrison did what many viewed as being the unthinkable by trading Dončić for Davis.
For Mavericks fans who viewed Dončić as Nowitzki’s rightful heir, Cuban’s sidelining only exacerbated the betrayal. Cuban had publicly stated for years that Dončić would retire a Maverick. The image of him learning the news via text underscored how far the franchise had moved from its foundational principles.
In the end, it wasn’t just a superstar being traded. It was a philosophical break from the Mavericks' identity — a move that now fully makes this Harrison’s team.
The Narrative Machine: Tunnel Vision, Media Control, and Disappearing Acts
Harrison didn’t just make the most controversial trade in franchise history — he violated NBA trade policy trying to defend it quickly. At 12:26 a.m. ET on Feb. 2, ESPN's Tim MacMahon published an on-the-record quote from Harrison defending the trade, within 15 minutes after Shams Charania first reported the agreement. The Mavericks didn’t officially announce the deal until many hours later.
NBA policy prohibits team personnel from commenting on trades before they are finalized. MacMahon, the same reporter who published the early quote, was later invited to a private, closed-door media roundtable with Harrison in April.
The optics were unmistakable: a GM breaking rules to control the narrative, then handpicking the journalist who helped carry it. However, that relationship clearly has since soured. Apparently, to Harrison’s surprise, his last remaining media ally was no longer on his side, as the opportunistic chance was available to take swings at Harrison while the season was already a failure. Harrison initially responded to a question about trading a generational talent entering his prime for a 32-year-old despite having depleted the team’s future draft assets with “Can you repeat that?”
In the roundtable organized by ownership, McMahon and other local media members aggressively questioned Harrison on trade logic, pick sacrifices, and staff purges. It marked a shift in tone from a reporter who had previously been the most consistent conduit for front office messaging. Now that Harrison has become a toxic affiliation amid national criticism, there is no shortage of negative information being published, but not when these situations were unfolding.
“Live by the sword, die by the sword. Now, the same media that Harrison hid behind to fight his battles for him are crushing him after a season, his recent key acquisitions described as ‘tumultuous’ — the condition he claimed he was avoiding by trading Luka,” as a source who previously worked closely with Harrison described the Mavericks’ current affairs.
Yet Harrison’s effort to shape the narrative extended beyond selective media access and leaks. After the Dončić trade, Harrison stopped sitting with his basketball operations staff in the lower bowl. At home games, he began watching from the tunnel, avoiding public view entirely. Yet at road games and even public events like SMU basketball games, he was present in the crowd.
From February 1 onward, Harrison became increasingly elusive. He violated NBA protocol by publicly commenting on the Dončić trade before it was official. He offered no statement on the Caleb Martin trade, despite Martin failing his physical, and skipped both the trade deadline availability and the introductory press conference for Davis, Christie, and Martin. Harrison had previously spoken to the media after both of his prior trade deadlines.
At the February 7 press conference, WFAA titled their segment “No-Show Nico,” criticizing his absence. In the aftermath, MacMahon reported Harrison had received death threats with mention that “Clearly, lines have been crossed. However, the Dallas Police Department told DallasHoopsJournal there were "no known threats” during that period. On ESPN’s Hoop Collective podcast, MacMahon clarified: “The threats did not raise themselves to the level that they needed to be reported to the police.”
Harrison’s media absence broke precedent. After the 2023 trade deadline, he held a casual media session in Sacramento. In 2024, he made himself available during halftime at Madison Square Garden. This year, after trading a generational superstar, he said nothing at TD Garden despite being on the road trip. Not even virtually.
The use of security concerns as an excuse for Harrison’s silence appeared increasingly disingenuous. He was often present at practices while the media were present, yet he never offered himself for comment. In contrast, Cuban used to speak to reporters in a courtside scrum multiple times per season, including when he addressed the team’s sale. Harrison could have even done this during periods when fans were not granted entry into the American Airlines Center on a gameday, but instead used this as a chance to make his rounds before assuming his new regular vantage point: the tunnel.
The Mavericks made the most seismic transaction in franchise history — one that led to national outrage, local protests, and relentless criticism — and their lead basketball executive disappeared. In the void, players became the most public-facing voices left to answer questions and shoulder the backlash for decisions they didn’t make.
Dirk Nowitzki’s Growing Distance from the Franchise
Nowitzki, the iconic face of the Mavericks for over two decades, has increasingly taken a backseat since the team traded Dončić, the hand-picked heir to his basketball legacy.
While Nowitzki was in attendance for Dončić’s debut with the Los Angeles Lakers and again for his emotional return to American Airlines Center on April 9, he did not attend any Mavericks home games in between, despite typically being a regular courtside presence in years past. It was a subtle but pointed shift, especially considering his symbolic stature and ongoing role as a special advisor to the team.
Nowitzki himself acknowledged the organizational shift in a podcast interview conducted in German alongside his sister Silke. Reflecting on Cuban’s exclusion from the trade decision, Dirk stated:
“I think Nico and the new owner pulled this off without involving him at all — or anyone else, for that matter. Of course, that’s tough for Mark. But when you sell the majority of your team, you have to expect that you won't have control anymore. That's just how it works.”
He added that “over the past year, you could already see the team heading in a different direction. Now we're seeing the result of that.”
Despite sitting courtside with Patrick Dumont during a game in March 2024, Nowitzki revealed he was not consulted about the Dončić trade, even as someone who had mentored Luka, represented the franchise globally, and helped bring stability in a previous leadership transition.
“I made it clear: I will always be a Mavs fan,” Nowitzki said. “But this trade really hurt. And it will take a while before everyone processes it and moves on.”
For a franchise that had built its identity on continuity and loyalty, the removal of Nowitzki from the decision-making process symbolized a break from the past. Even Cuban, who reportedly promised everything would be done to ensure Dončić would spend his entire career in Dallas, was blindsided.
Nowitzki’s distancing has echoed loudly in Dallas. In a year filled with tunnel posturing, private briefings, and purged connections to the franchise’s cultural fabric, the absence of its most revered figure may be the clearest sign that the Mavericks have fundamentally changed who they are — and who they listen to.
The Chants Dallas Couldn’t Control
The organization’s early response had already foreshadowed their discomfort. On February 12, during the Mavericks' 129-128 overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings, four fans were ejected, sparking controversy and public backlash. This occurred less than a week after more than 1,000 protesters gathered outside the Nowitzki statue before the team’s first home game after the trade, many wearing “Fire Nico” shirts and chanting to remove Harrison.
Two fans were ejected for holding signs that read “Fire Nico,” with one also mouthing the phrase during an in-game karaoke contest. Another pair — Chris Taylor and Garrett Bussey — were ejected after an altercation that involved Cuban. Taylor chanted “Fire Nico!” while Bussey wore a shirt depicting Mavericks majority owner Miriam Adelson with a clown nose. Video footage circulated widely after Cuban gestured, “Shut the f--- up and sit the f--- down!” at the pair.
Taylor, wearing Dončić’s Slovenian national team jersey, told DallasHoopsJournal.com that he had no sign and nothing offensive, saying his friend’s shirt, not his own behavior, drew attention. Bussey stated he was pushed by security, tweaking a surgically repaired leg, and later denied assistance to exit the arena despite limping.
The Mavericks defended the ejections by citing violations of the NBA’s Fan Code of Conduct and claimed the fans were “intoxicated, disruptive, and uncooperative.” Cuban later doubled down, telling DallasHoopsJournal.com that even if someone isn't breaking specific rules, they can be ejected if arena staff believe their behavior might cause a disturbance. “There is a lot of hell you can raise without violating the specific code as written,” he said. “The discretion is always to make sure the fans are safe.”
Cuban maintained that the incident stemmed from his frustration that others were booing the fans while the Mavericks had the ball during crunch time, insisting that his gesture was to quiet them for the team’s sake. But the fans’ video told a different story: one of spontaneous public dissent met by swift enforcement and top-down suppression.
The optics were unmistakable: the franchise wasn’t just avoiding the noise — it was actively trying to silence it.
After the loss against the Kings, Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd skipped the postgame press conference, a breach of NBA rules. It was another moment of silence during a period of avoidance, leaving the players to handle the noise.
Klay Thompson acknowledged the pain: “I understand [fans’] frustration because Luka was that great and he was homebred here.”
Irving reflected on the emotion: “To see the emotions come out like that over basketball, that just shows you that basketball is not just a game to certain people. It’s a spiritual experience.”
When Dončić returned to American Airlines Center on April 9, it was the fans, not the franchise, that made the loudest statement. Just four seconds into his first game back, the crowd erupted: “Fire Nico! Fire Nico!” The chant was immediate, unrelenting, and deafening. It resumed every time play stopped, peaked during free throws, and surged again after Dončić exited to a standing ovation following a 45-point performance in the Lakers’ 112-97 win.
Anthony Davis, the centerpiece of the trade, refused to engage with questions about the crowd reaction. Harrison, stoic and silent, watched from the midcourt tunnel, refusing to sit in the lower bowl alongside his staff or respond to the chants. But for those watching, the message was clear. No tribute, no media management, and no tunnel positioning could drown out a fanbase’s fury. This wasn’t a blip. It was a referendum. As the Mavericks cracked down on signage and increased security, the signs of unrest only intensified.
Even as their season ended, the Mavericks were still trying to mute the public’s response. Just over a week after Dončić’s return to Dallas, during the Mavericks’ April 18 elimination game at FedEx Forum in Memphis, it happened again — this time in a nearly empty arena before tipoff and in a visiting venue. A fan sitting near the Mavericks’ bench was approached by security and warned not to chant “Fire Nico.” Security told the fan that Mavericks security explicitly requested the warning. The fan later posted a video and announced he had canceled his $1,000-per-game season tickets after more than a decade.
Kyrie Irving, the Cornerstone of Harrison's Post-Luka Vision
Irving was supposed to be the co-star. Now he’s the centerpiece and has to fully recover from a torn ACL before returning to competition.
Since arriving in Dallas via trade in February 2023, Irving has transformed from a perceived risk into the spiritual and tactical heart of Harrison’s blueprint. Even before the Dončić trade, there were murmurs of a new three-year deal in the works. Now, Irving’s re-signing has become even more of a top offseason priority — arguably the only logical course for a team left with limited star power and no clear direction beyond Harrison’s preferences.
Harrison has long admired Irving. Their relationship dates back to Harrison's Nike days, when he developed close ties with the league’s biggest stars, including Irving. When Dallas took a widely questioned swing to acquire the embattled guard from Brooklyn in early 2023, it was Harrison who defended the move without hesitation: “I don’t see the risk at all. I actually see risk in not doing it.” Irving even responded with a pointed “touché.” That confidence paid off.
Despite the Mavericks missing the playoffs that spring, Irving signed a three-year, $120 million deal, with a player option in the final year, and began building a new identity alongside Dončić. The two All-Stars quickly developed a close bond on and off the court, helping Dallas reach the NBA Finals during the 2023–24 season.
The Mavericks’ infrastructure was tailored to fit Irving’s needs. Kidd has been another pillar in Irving’s resurgence. The Hall of Fame point guard turned coach has earned Irving’s trust and praise throughout their partnership. Harrison surrounded Irving with allies, including assistant coach God Shammgod, a lifelong family friend. That effort to establish comfort and familiarity was a direct counter to the dysfunction that plagued Irving’s stints in Boston and Brooklyn.
Mavericks assistant general manager Matt Riccardi has a strong rapport with Irving, with whom he has worked in Brooklyn and Dallas. He was part of the Nets’ front office that brought Irving and Kevin Durant to Brooklyn in 2019. Riccardi remains the only executive to have worked with Irving across multiple organizations.
Irving, for his part, delivered. During the 2023–24 campaign, he averaged 24.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 4.6 assists across 50 games, earning his ninth All-Star selection. He shot 49.7% from the field and 41.1% from three-point range, was flirting with a 50/40/90 shooting split, and helped Dallas go 15-5 in his final 20 games. He also posted a 21-game streak of consecutive appearances — his longest in nearly a decade.
That momentum was halted early in the 2024–25 season by a torn left ACL sustained on March 3. The injury, followed by surgery on March 26, has temporarily put Irving's future on hold. Optimism remains that he could return by January 2026, with the expectation he’ll be able to contribute meaningfully during the 2025–26 season.
However, Harrison initially cited a 3-to-4-year window for the current Mavericks core. In the first year of that window, the 2024–25 season, it failed. Year 2 will hinge on the health, recovery, and performance of Irving, who will be 34 before next year’s playoffs, coming off major knee surgery. Irving has a $43 million player option for 2025–26, but league sources expect the Mavericks to offer him a new three-year deal, aligning his timeline with those of both Davis and Harrison.
That alignment is intentional.
This is Harrison’s vision now: a team built around Davis and Irving, with a supporting cast shaped by his philosophy. Re-signing Irving is not just about retaining talent; it's also about keeping a key player and about doubling down on the most audacious gamble of Harrison’s tenure — one that removed Dončić, alienated the fanbase, and placed all bets on a controversial but undeniably gifted guard who, for now, remains the face of the franchise.
Given how the situation has played out, it remains to be seen how long Harrison will be around to see his vision through. He has three years remaining on his contract, but will he finish it out?
Whoever ends up managing the fallout will need to do so with an aging and injured core while not having control of their first-round picks from 2027 through 2030. When the team faces financial pressure to compete and maximize revenue, that’s also the only period when a teardown would benefit them in terms of draft outlook.
Many of Harrison’s moves were made with the benefit of having those pieces play with an elite scorer and playmaker like Dončić. However, most were clean-up moves. The move to acquire Grant Williams cost a 2030 first-round swap that now belongs to the San Antonio Spurs, all for more draft capital — a top-two protected 2027 first-round pick — to be sent to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for Washington.
It’s been an expensive process to find frontcourt depth over the years. Dallas sent a 2028 first-round pick swap to the Oklahoma City Thunder to land a 2024 first-round pick to deal to the Washington Wizards for Daniel Gafford. Harrison’s first attempts to add veteran center production began with a failed JaVale McGee signing using the taxpayer mid-level exception, which the team is still paying dead money through 2027-28. Having $2.2 million on the books owed to McGee didn’t help their First Apron woes this season. The Mavericks also traded a first-round pick (No. 26 overall in 2022) for Christian Wood, who departed from the team after one season with the organization.
The Long Game: Matan Adelson?
In the long term, one name Mavericks fans should get acquainted with is Matan Adelson, the son of Miriam and the late Sheldon Adelson. Matan has long been viewed by insiders as being groomed to run the team. A November 2023 report in the New York Post detailed how Cuban, once close with Sheldon, may be mentoring Matan to take over by age 30.
If the Mavericks become determined to make leadership changes, Cuban remains positioned to reassert influence by acting as a stabilizing guide. With Dumont’s lack of NBA experience, Cuban’s insights would become necessary after a leadership change. Doing so could involve the younger Adelson in the future.
Matan interned in the Mavericks' corporate sponsorship department in 2016, while still a teenager, which gave him early exposure to the organization. He later studied economics at Stanford, interned in investment banking, and moved to Israel, where in 2023 he purchased a 90% stake in Hapoel Jerusalem B.C. for $20 million. He told Jewish Insider that owning a team in Israel was a “Zionist act” and said his dream as a child was to own an NBA franchise — originally the Lakers.
“My goal from when I was a very little kid was to buy an NBA team one day, specifically the Lakers,” Adelson told Jewish Insider in 2024. “But when I turned 18, my dad sat me down and said, ‘If you ever have the chance to buy the Lakers, don’t do it.’”
His father’s reasoning: “The Lakers will always be the Lakers, they’re always going to be in the biggest market with the most championships and the sexiest brand, and you’ll have very little room to create value with the Lakers.”
“He told me to ‘buy a team that’s down here and build it up to here,’” Matan recalled. “By creating value, you’re going to learn a lot and you’re going to be very personally fulfilled.”
While he says there’s no formal collaboration with the Mavericks, Adelson’s attendance at games, his family connection through his mother, and his rapid rise in global basketball make it increasingly plausible that he’s positioned to assume a future role with the Mavericks.
Dumont, whose background is in corporate finance through Las Vegas Sands, would be best served focusing more on the team’s business ventures, most notably the proposed casino-arena concept that has faced resistance in city council meetings, including in Irving, where land was acquired for a potential venue site.
Monday's Reckoning
Harrison is set to speak publicly for the first time in front of the whole non-handpicked Dallas media for the first time since the trade deadline on Monday. What began as a basketball decision has now been exposed as a broader campaign to consolidate control, eliminate dissent, and reshape the franchise in his image. Dončić wasn’t the problem. He was the obstacle.
And the city of Dallas is still waiting for someone to explain why that had to happen.
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Great article!