Mavericks' broken blueprint from Nico Harrison just got exposed by rival's collapse

Dallas Mavericks GM Nico Harrison's philosophy on February 1 has been simple from the beginning of the season. After the addition of Anthony Davis and the subtraction of Luka Doncic, it was apparent that Harrison was focused on only one thing: defense.

After the Mavs organization's bizarre move to hold a press conference without cameras and only a select group of local media, Harrison stated over and over again that he fully believes defense wins championships. We've seen plenty of sports teams hold up to that philosophy before, but the last basketball team to win with a true defensive identity was the 2004 Detroit Pistons.

Teams like that aren't playing with the same final score results in today's NBA, but even after the result of the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets' first-round series, Harrison's philosophy looks like it just got thrown out the window.

Warriors-Rockets series exposes Mavericks' next potential downfall

The Rockets came into the playoffs with one of the most ferocious defenses in the NBA, with the No. 5 defensive rating this season. With the Warriors not being the same dynamic offense from previous years, they're the ones moving on to face the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round of the playoffs.

There were three times when the Rockets didn't score 100 points, and they paid the price by losing every one of those games. Harrison's philosophy backfired massively with the Rockets being the ones going home. Jalen Green had one amazing performance and later admitted to not playing his best basketball on the biggest stage.

Even when Houston kept the pace to where they wanted it, they simply couldn't make shots. Against Stephen Curry and Buddy Hield, it's only a matter of time until they start hitting shots. It was also a matchup between the young guns against the proven champs, and the champs came out to play in Game 7 the other night.

Houston's offense just wasn't good enough to compete with the Warriors, and the Mavericks are in serious danger of falling into that trap next season. They don't have enough offense around their core of Davis and Kyrie Irving, and they have to ensure they add more shooting and creation this offseason to avoid being like the Rockets.

You need to find offensive playmakers and shooters to compete in the NBA today. The defense is one aspect of it, but Houston being eliminated shows that Harrison's mindset was in the wrong place the whole time. Los Angeles Lakers GM Rob Pelinka got sixth place in the 2024-25 NBA Basketball Executive of the Year Award, while Harrison finished out with no votes at all.

This proves what Mavs fans knew all along when they traded away Doncic. While it's not fair to blame injuries on anyone, it's arguable that the ACL injury to Irving wouldn't have happened if Doncic were carrying half the load of the ball handling.

Houston's gone, and Harrison's philosophy proves exactly why he always made the wrong decision.