Mavericks are wasting proven NBA cheat code for success thanks to Nico Harrison

Nico Harrison has been in the headlines as one of the more controversial professional sports general managers in sports history. Going from making the Dallas Mavericks an attractive basketball team for veteran free agents, Harrison has quickly become a media frenzy by trading away his generational superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in February.

In his end-of-season press conference, Harrison revealed something that will stick out to Mavs fans for a long time. He said that he didn't realize how important Doncic was to fans, which instantly set off a firestorm among the rest of the NBA media. This made Harrison look like a deer in the headlights, as he looked completely clueless discussing his ex-star who led them to the 2024 NBA Finals and became the face of the city of Dallas.

Now, with the 2024-25 season coming to an end, the Mavericks need to start thinking about building their roster through the draft, which is exactly what Harrison intends to do as the Mavericks have the 11h-best lottery odds, but based on decisions that Harrison has made in the past, Dallas can't build through the second round of the draft for years to come.

Harrison trading all of Mavs' second-round picks will haunt them for years

With the Mavs at limited capacity with signing different players, the only other option is to look forward to the NBA Draft. With big names like Egor Demin from BYU set to throw his name in the draft, the Mavericks already have a setback there. Bill Duffy is the agent of Demin and Doncic, which makes the match already a bit tricky for the future. With a first-round pick coming, the Mavs have to capitalize on this golden opportunity.

If they don't, they don't have any room for mistakes.

Second-round picks have not been well for the Mavericks. Harrison has traded away almost all of Dallas' second-round picks, and they would be valuable right now, considering the tough spot the team is in. Future Hall of Fame players like Nikola Jokic, Jalen Brunson, and Draymond Green are hard to come by as is, but even guys like Andrew Nembhard and Jaylen Wells are solid pieces to their respective teams who were selected in the second round, and Dallas could really use that right now.

Using second-round picks is one of the most underrated cheat codes in the NBA, as you can land a cost-controlled young player at a cheap cost, and many of these guys turn into two-way players who later have the opportunity to earn a standard deal. Developing second-round picks into role players has proven to be an effective strategy for teams around the league, and it helps with continuity as well as helping your team navigate the NBA's complex CBA.

With Harrison pulling a Jerry Jones-type move by going "all in," the Mavs don't have room for errors after the 2025 NBA Draft since they barely have any draft capital to their name. Harrison and the front office basically have one chance to try and get a solid ball handler to help the team with Kyrie Irving out until January. Even if Dallas gets a guy like Demin, it's up to the coaching staff to get him ready early to hold the fort down in the ball-handling business until Irving gets back. Once again, if all goes wrong in the draft, it wouldn't be any players at fault; it would be Harrison who's guilty.

Harrison's aggressiveness when dealing second-round picks has put the Mavericks in an awful position for the future, and he should have taken notes from teams around the league when it comes to utilizing second-round picks whenever they can. Finding gold in the second round of the draft is hard, but not impossible, and Harrison should have realized that before it was too late.