Mavericks' Quentin Grimes trade officially backfires on Nico Harrison with new detail

The Dallas Mavericks' 2025 trade deadline endeavors orchestrated by Nico Harrison have been under more scrutiny than he could have ever expected, with the Luka Doncic trade looking like more of a disaster by the day. Doncic dominated the Mavericks in his homecoming game last week, scoring 45 points and leading the Los Angeles Lakers to a win, also leading the Lakers to secure the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference within the last few days.

Fans will never forgive Harrison for his decision to trade Doncic, and another move from the trade deadline has also been a disaster for Dallas that fans can't stop thinking about. Harrison decided to trade Quentin Grimes and the Philadelphia 76ers' 2025 second-round pick to the Sixers for Caleb Martin and a 2030 second-round pick, and things have not gone anywhere close to expected for either side.

Grimes was excellent for the Sixers this season, as he averaged 21.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 46.9 percent from the field and 37.3 percent from downtown, appearing in 28 games while starting 25 of these games. He proved that the Mavericks should never have traded him, and on top of that, Martin's time in Dallas has been disappointing and filled with injuries.

Mavericks' Grimes trade dive-bombs with confirmed draft order

Martin averaged 5.4 points, 2.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 0.9 steals per game while shooting 38.9 percent from the field and 25 percent from downtown in 14 games. While Martin's play started to pick up by the end of the season in Dallas, he didn't live up to expectations, and the trade just shifted even more in Philadelphia's direction now that the season is over.

With the Sixers finishing with a 24-58 record, they were officially the fifth-worst team in the NBA, solidifying their second-round pick in this summer's draft as the No. 35 pick. This matters because Dallas gave this pick back to the Sixers as part of this deal, and the Mavericks would have had the chance to use this pick in the draft if they hadn't traded it.

Anyone could have predicted Philadelphia's end-of-season collapse long before the trade deadline, considering the vibes surrounding that team as well as their injury luck, and Harrison's decision to include this pick in the trade could end up being a nightmare. Dallas needs cost-controlled young players badly, and this would have given them the perfect shot at adding an impact-now player for the end of the bench.

Hitting on second-round picks is challenging in today's NBA, but not impossible, and the Mavericks should have been much more cautious when it came to dealing that pick. Trading a valuable second-round pick while acquiring the worse player in the deal makes zero sense, and while Martin's contract doesn't expire until after the 2027-28 season (he has a player option after the 2026-27 season as well), it didn't make sense to trade the superior of the two players when trying to win a ring right now, even with Grimes' contract expiring this summer.

Dallas' 2025 trade deadline could end up going down as one of the worst in NBA history depending on how Grimes and Martin grow with their new teams, and all eyes will be on Philadelphia when they're on the clock with the No. 35 pick. Whoever is selected here will be connected to the Grimes-Martin trade forever, and this player somehow developing into a future star or high-end role player will only bring more criticism onto Harrison's shoulders.