The Dallas Mavericks have finally fired general manager Nico Harrison. While Mavericks fans are understandably thrilled with this long-overdue decision, which should've happened the moment Harrison suggested trading away a top-five player in the world, this is disappointing news for all the other 29 NBA teams.
The Los Angeles Lakers already historically fleeced Dallas thanks to Harrison's poor talent evaluation, and the Portland Trail Blazers had the perfect asset in place to do it again.
Tim Cato of DLLS Sports recently highlighted several red flags that Harrison displayed during his time in the front office, from failing to answer phone calls to improperly evaluating talent despite his Nike background. For instance, Cato notes that Harrison attempted to trade two first-round picks for Kyle Kuzma! How that deal didn't get accepted is beyond me.
This one is even better: "One team source recalls a document where Harrison placed Jrue Holiday within the same trade target tier as Nikola Jokić."
Umm... what?
Blazers missed hilarious chance to fleece the Mavericks
It shouldn't come as a surprise that Harrison was high on Holiday. This offseason, NBA insider Jake Fischer named the Mavericks and Sacramento Kings as the two teams to have "preliminary interest" in acquiring him from Boston.
Holiday would've fit Harrison's defensive mindset and could've provided Dallas with a win-now piece that can effectively alter his role in the backcourt, filling the point guard void and sliding to shooting guard when Kyrie Irving returned.
At 35 years old, Holiday also aligned with Harrison's laughably bad timeline. Harrison emphasized that acquiring veteran Anthony Davis fit for their long-term plans, only to clarify what that actually meant to him: "The future to me is three, four years from now. Ten years from now, I don't know. They'll probably bury me and J[ason Kidd] by then. Or we bury ourselves."
Well, Harrison was right about one thing: he buried himself.
With the Mavericks off to a slow start to the season, Harrison would've been increasingly desperate to make this roster work and prove to the world that "fortune favors the bold."
Holiday is having a strong bounce-back season in Portland and is easily justifying the Anfernee Simons swap. That said, part of the reason the Holiday trade was initially criticized was his questionable fit with the Blazers' rebuilding roster. The Blazers should absolutely still be open to trading him for the right price, especially now that they have another veteran mentor in Damian Lillard on the roster.
It remains to be seen what Portland could've ultimately received from Dallas. The possibilities were seemingly endless when talking about someone who believed Holiday was in the same tier as Jokic.
Could Cooper Flagg have even been in play?
While that shouldn't even be a conversation, this is the man who traded away Doncic we're talking about, meaning nothing should be considered off-limits. Harrison clearly didn't care about Dallas' actual long-term outlook. Why would he worry about the developmental timeline of an 18-year-old when the future was just three or four years away?
Unfortunately, we'll never know. Harrison's firing just slammed that door shut on what could've been yet another lopsided trade at Dallas' expense. The Blazers had the perfect opportunity, but ran out of time to work the phones.
Then again, given Harrison's track record and reputation, who's to say he would've even picked up?