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Major Mavericks Update Could Affect Nico Harrison

Originally posted on Athlon Sports
By Ishaan Bhattacharya | Last updated Apr 21, 2025 11:01 AM ET

The Dallas Mavericks have begun their offseason, and just like the ending to their 2024-25 regular season, it's been rocky for the franchise. The fallout of the Luka Doncic trade and their failure to reach the 2025 playoffs has led to incessant chatter around Nico Harrison's management of the franchise.

With major revelations of Harrison's potential motivations behind the Doncic trade and how he might have fired people he believed were threats to his position, the situation is getting more uncomfortable in Dallas.

Harrison was the driving force behind the Doncic trade, getting the new team Governor Patrick Dumont to sign off. Former Governor Mark Cuban made it clear he would've never sanctioned a similar deal, but Dumont is an outsider in the basketball world and implicitly trusted Nico to make the best decision for the franchise.

With negative PR flooding the Mavericks since the trade and Dumont reportedly forcing Harrison into conducting a highly-criticized press conference last week, it seems patience with Nico is running thin.

Tim Cato of DLLS Sports revealed that Dumont no longer holds Harrison's basketball opinions as gospel, with frustrations around the fallout mounting.

"Team sources consistently express belief that Dumont no longer sees Harrison as a figure with irreproachable basketball expertise. Most notably, team and league sources say, Dumont has had frustration with Harrison not warning him or, perhaps even more damningly, being unaware of the fandom's outrage following the trade. Those same sources say it had some influence over Dumont's decision to make Harrison appear for last week's closed media event, which Harrison did not want to."

Doncic's departure has had a potentially billion-dollar impact on the franchise, especially with Luka admitting he never planned on leaving and would've signed a contract extension in the summer.

With results plummeting on and off the court, it's hard to imagine the Mavericks' ownership taking no action with Harrison.

After all, this trade was his brainchild from the moment discussions began until February 1, when Shams Charania told the world about it.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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