Mavericks' former champion boldly backs Nico Harrison amid nonstop controversy

The Dallas Mavericks have been out of the mainstream news cycle for almost two weeks now, as Dallas' playoff hopes came to an end exactly two weeks ago when the Memphis Grizzlies beat them handily in Dallas' second game of the Play-In Tournament. This season ending was probably more of a relief for Dallas' players compared to any other season they've been a part of, as the organization has been made a laughingstock as well as a constant subject of criticism and ridicule because of Nico Harrison's decision to trade Luka Doncic in February.

Doncic's new squad in the Los Angeles Lakers also saw their season come to an end recently, as the Minnesota Timberwolves eliminated the Lakers from the first round of the playoffs with a series-clinching victory on Wednesday. This has summoned a select group of fans to back Harrison's "Defense wins championships" mantra, as Doncic was laboring with some minor injuries toward the back-half of this series with Minnesota and was getting blown by consistently.

For most people though, this one series obviously wasn't enough to dissuade fan opinion on the Doncic trade, and there are still plenty of former Mavericks fans who have permanently banished the organization because of the Doncic trade. However, ex-Maverick and 2011 NBA Championship winner Brenden Haywood recently walked a fine line between understanding fan discontentment while also somewhat praising Harrison's trade, as Haywood recently appeared on a TMZ interview outside of an airport.

Haywood defends Nico Harrison's controversial Luka Doncic trade

"I think this comes down to what happens next year for the Dallas Mavericks," Haywood said. "So if they gonna give him another year, the team gets healthy, what happens with Kyrie, they re-sign him, get AD back, at the end of the day, winning cures all. If they can find a way to win, he can survive...Defense wins championships, that's what Nico talked about, so I see the vision defensively, but I also understand why the fans are upset. Only time will tell."

Haywood didn't fully back Harrison here, but he did echo Harrison's repeated mantra of "Defense wins championships", which clearly doesn't justify Harrison's decision to make this move whatsoever. Haywood has some serious acumen after being one of the best backup rim protectors in the entire league en route to helping Dallas win a championship in 2011, so while he understands the importance of defense more than anyone, he also probably understands just how much of a basketball savant Doncic is.

It's hard to tell whether Haywood was trying to provide an optimistic outlook for the Mavericks amidst all the criticism that has been thrown their way recently, or if he was truly backing Harrison in this instance. If he is siding with Harrison and really sees his vision on this trade eye-to-eye, though, then this is an embarrassingly bad take by Haywood, as Harrison didn't even recoup proper value when trading Doncic.

Based on Haywood's tone during the interview, it sounded more like he was trying to pitch the best-case scenario to Mavericks fans next season and give them a little hope, which can certainly be appreciated based on how the last few months have gone. Haywood said, "Only time will tell" in regard to if this trade pans out or not, and while that is undeniably true, Harrison's trade is shaping out to be one of the worst trades at face value in sports history.

Even if the Mavericks win two championships in a row, their window to win has been shrunk immensely by Harrison, and the only way the Mavericks could truly win this trade is if Doncic's body fizzles out due to continued poor decision making off the court. That would be a sad reality for Mavericks fans even with Doncic gone, but that is the bet Harrison is making in this instance, even if it seems extremely unlikely that Doncic won't start taking his conditioning and off-court habits a little more seriously after this trade.