Mavericks' biggest offseason gamble just exploded — and Nico Harrison is to blame

The Dallas Mavericks announced that Dante Exum will miss the remainder of the 2025-26 season due to needing knee surgery, and Nico Harrison's decision to bring him back on a one-year, $3.3 million deal over the offseason has already turned into an all-out disaster.

Dallas said that Exum underwent surgery on his right knee during the summer and has since dealt with some "complications" because of it. It was determined that he would need a "follow-up surgery" to fix whatever is going on, and his 2025-26 season ends without him even getting a single game or practice under his belt. Exum missed all of training camp and every game so far with what the Mavericks ruled as "right knee injury management," and now it's known that he was recovering from surgery.

Harrison knew Exum's injury history when the team re-signed him, as he had only played in 75 games over his first two seasons in Dallas, but they elected to bring him back for a round three in one of the most pivotal seasons in franchise history. The organization was desperate for some excitement and winning basketball after going through a whirlwind of emotions following the Luka Doncic trade, and Exum was part of their plan to get back on track.

Dante Exum's Mavericks journey ends with disaster

The Mavericks' biggest mission this summer was to find a Kyrie Irving replacement, as he was set to miss a large chunk of this season after tearing his ACL in March, and they decided to sign D'Angelo Russell and re-sign Exum to fill this hole.

This was an extremely bold bet by Harrison, and now the Mavericks are paying for it, even though he is long gone now after being fired last week. The aftershock of many of Harrison's recent moves, such as the Luka Doncic and Quentin Grimes trades, as well as bringing back Exum, is hindering their success this season. Exum not being available much (or at all in this case) this season was unfortunately predictable, and the new regime is paying for his mistake.

The Mavericks boldly waived Olivier-Maxence Prosper to re-sign Exum, which mounted some pressure on Exum's shoulders to perform well this season, and this decision couldn't have gone worse for Dallas. The Mavs thought that Exum would provide more of an impact than a rising young prospect, but that has not been the case.

The easiest thing to do right now would be to waive Exum and bring in another point guard to help hold them over until Irving comes back, but they can't make that move thanks to their financial situation. The Mavericks are hard-capped at the second apron, meaning they can't sign another player until January 6.

Dallas is going to be stuck signing a player to a 10-day deal at that point, just like they were last year when all of their bigs were injured, and the injury bug just won't leave the Mavericks alone.

Rather than accepting the warning signs that surrounded Exum for his entire career, Harrison and the Mavericks decided to bring him back. This caused them to enter another nightmare-ish roster crunch, just like last season, and there's no way they can get out of this at this point.