The Anthony Davis disaster Nico Harrison created keeps the Mavericks in flames

Nico Harrison haunts the hallways of the American Airlines Center like the ghost of Christmas Past. But the New Year isn’t looking any better with the devastating news of Anthony Davis’ recent ligament damage to his left hand.

Davis is out indefinitely, and the Mavericks find themselves in a precarious position that seems straight out of a horror novel by Stephen King. Apologies are in order. It's a Happy New Year, but it's the same old Anthony Davis.

Nico Harrison was the mastermind behind the ill-fated Luka Doncic trade that brought Davis to town. And now the worst-case scenario of Davis not living up to expectations has happened. But somehow the prognosis is even worse than imagined. Just when the Mavericks thought they might be able to salvage the season or even trade Davis for sizeable assets, Davis goes down.

Nico Harrison let his feelings about Luka Doncic cloud his judgment

This is bad. Real bad. The prevailing sentiment around the league is that the Mavericks didn’t get nearly enough in return for shipping the talented Slovenian to the bright lights of Tinseltown.

An injury-prone Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick don’t seem nearly enough in hindsight for a top-five player in the league just entering his prime. Regardless of his defensive deficiencies.

For all his faults, the constant whining to referees every other possession and the in-season weight that fluctuated up and down like a yo-yo. Doncic was a box office attraction who had just made a deep playoff run to the NBA Finals in 2024. There was consistency amidst the chaos. There was a return on investment. There was predictability that you could build around. Surrounding the European prodigy with pieces to hide his faults seemed like a more prudent course of action.

But Harrison got in his feelings and chose to go nuclear. He hit the red button. He convinced his superiors that trading a generational talent like Doncic was a chess move that Bobby Fischer would admire. What the Mavericks have now is potentially another situation where they will have to take the scraps for whatever they can get for Davis on the open trade market.

Davis is damaged goods now. Again. And teams will circle the trade waters like a great white shark stalking its prey. They smell blood. And they know Dallas is desperate to get out from underneath this. But how desperate is the question?

Davis and Dallas' front office are both in an impossible position

Davis doesn’t deserve this. He is who he is. One of the most talented two-way players to grace the league in the past 15 years. But oh so brittle of mind and body. Any time he winces or grabs a body part, fans and management hold their breath. And at 32 years of age, he seems to be exiting his prime at an accelerated rate that would make any team hesitant to offer a max contract extension in good conscience.

Here lies the conundrum.

Does Dallas’ management take whatever they can get for Davis in a lopsided trade in hopes of fully ridding themselves of the Nico Harrison fiasco? Or do they give Davis the extension he wants and explore possible trade options down the line? How do you remain competitive and not mortgage your future? Or is it time to go full rebuild and sit Kyrie Irving out for the rest of the season? There is much to ponder…

Everything is tied together, and somehow it still feels like Harrison is pulling the strings like a puppet master behind the scenes. This is yet another black cloud hovering over Cooper Flagg’s historical rookie campaign.

Another misstep by Dallas’s front office could prompt fans to seriously question the franchise's direction. Their next move needs to be their best move. The business side of basketball can be a cold game. But this winter season seems just a bit more frigid with what’s at stake.

Mavericks owners Patrick Dumont and Mark Cuban have to be feeling some regret like Ebenezer Scrooge did at Christmas right about now. The ghosts of trades past are intent on teaching a lesson. Bah, humbug.

The least Nico Harrison could do is apologize to Anthony Davis for putting him in this situation. But not all stories have a happy ending, it seems. Dallas would be wise to try to rewrite theirs.