To The Surprise Of No One, Things Have Gotten Even Worse For Nico Harrison And The Dallas Mavericks

Rocky Widner. Getty Images.

Part of the fun of the NBA season being back is spending your night flipping through League Pass and watching 6+ hours of basketball every night. Considering the talent has never been better and teams across the league seem better than ever, it's a great way to spend an evening.

On the flip side, it also gives you an opportunity to see the other end of the spectrum and watch some of the biggest disasters in the league unfold right before your eyes. The Pelicans for example are 2-6 and don't even own their own pick this summer, so tanking for them does nothing. The Nets look no closer to not being a disaster than they were last year, and none of their 10 billion draft picks look all that great. 

But none of those situations comes close to what is currently going on in Dallas. If you thought that maybe last year was rock bottom following the Luka Trade, boy do I have some bad news for you. The 2025-26 season is reaching even new levels of hell.

And while it's true that they do have Cooper Flagg and he's showing flashes of what will most likely develop into a very good career, the fact remains that he hasn't even been the best rookie of his class so far. He's young as shit, and it might be a little unfair to hold him to this level of expectation so early, but that's what comes with being the next franchise savior, especially when we remember how the Mavs got Flagg in the first place.

When the Luka trade first happened, Nico Harrison was quick to talk about how this team was actually better, they were set up for long term contention, defense wins championships etc etc. It was all bullshit, we knew it was bullshit, but that's what he was trying to sell.

So, how have things gone in 2025-26 for Nico? For starters, his team sits in dead last in the Western Conference

Let's not forget how this all started, either. Anthony Davis, the centerpiece of that Luka trade, came into camp fat and out of shape. As a reminder, that was the very thing they traded Luka for. Not only that, he's already hurt

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The other main piece in Kyrie Irving, is still rehabbing from his ACL tear. I for one, am shocked that two injury-prone players in their 30s ended up getting hurt. Who could have possibly seen this coming? Not Nico Harrison, that's for sure. 

Don't worry, there's more. Offensively? The Mavs rank 30th in the NBA. It hasn't even mattered that their early-season defense has been fine to good, ranking 6th. Why? Because in 2025, Nico, you need to be able to score. Everyone with a brain knows this. Their overall -6.9 net rating has them living in the group of IND/MEM/UTA/PHX, all of which should be finishing in the lottery. The Mavs have the second worst point differential in the conference! Perhaps trading your generational offensive talent just because he may like to smoke hookah and drink beer might not have been the best decision.

Meanwhile, in addition to their own team being complete dogshit, Mavs fans are being forced to experience this on a nightly basis

I said it all last year and I'll say it again now in 2025-26. My heart truly goes out to Mavs fans. This is so beyond fucked I don't know how anyone could possibly handle this as a Mavs fan. Every game that goes by, this trade that is already considered the worst trade in NBA history, continues to age like milk. It's almost as if the Basketball Gods are making an effort to punish Nico Harrison for being such a fucking idiot just to make a point. 

What's impressive is even the decisions made by around the margins are a disaster. Quentin Grimes being traded to the Sixers has also turned out to be a terrible decision. Thinking D'Angelo Russell could be the solution to your point guard problems is one of the dumbest things a team can do. The Klay Thompson experience, how would we say that's been going? Considering he just got benched, I'd say not great. 

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So really what we're seeing is a true masterclass in ineptitude when it comes to a basketball decision maker. Both in terms of the big stuff (Luka) and even the small stuff (draft, role guys etc). We're seeing a team that was just in the Finals and well-positioned to be a contender, drop to the bottom of the West in the blink of an eye. It's remarkable.

Now, is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Maybe Adam Silver and the league will feel bad and do what they just did last summer and make sure the Mavs end up with a top 3 pick. You land any of the top 3 guys in this Draft and at least you have a great young foundation to pair with Cooper Flagg. Sure you can probably throw out the whole "winning" thing, which was supposed to be the whole point of the Luka trade, but who really believed that was going to happen?

The whole thing just sucks. An entire fanbase is being dragged through hell all because one guy has no idea what the fuck he's doing, and nothing is going to change! It's not like you can fire Nico and then reverse the trade. What's done is done, and it feels like the Mavs will never recover.