Mavericks' latest brutal cut exposes another under-the-radar Nico Harrison blunder

Let’s face it: the Dallas Mavericks have made a string of debilitating moves over the past year, and there’s really no debating that. From jettisoning Luka Doncic to signing D’Angelo Russell, the questionable decisions have piled up. And more recently, an end-of-February roster cut only highlighted once again just how poor Dallas’ front-office decisions, particularly those of Nico Harrison, have been.

Okay, so Harrison was relieved of his duties in November. How can he be blamed for a roster decision made in February?

The truth is, he can’t. Harrison wasn’t the one who cut Tyus Jones, a player Dallas had traded for just weeks earlier. But according to Dallas Hoops Journal’s Grant Afseth, Harrison and the Mavericks had previously held Jones in high regard last summer before ultimately opting to sign D’Angelo Russell instead.

So, let’s backtrack. After trading away Doncic and then losing Kyrie Irving to a devastating ACL tear, Harrison and the Mavericks entered the offseason with a major need to stabilize what had once been a highly regarded backcourt.

The D'Angelo Russell signing quickly backfired

As a result, Harrison signed Russell to a multi-year contract and later re-signed Dante Exum after parting ways with former first-round pick Olivier-Maxence Prosper. Ultimately, Harrison’s solution, while Dallas navigated a season without Irving, was signing Russell.

Although it initially looked like a savvy move to acquire a career 17-point-per-game scorer, the decision backfired almost immediately. Russell still produced respectable counting stats, but by January, he had already fallen out of Jason Kidd’s rotation, despite the Mavericks dealing with a thin backcourt.

Ultimately, Russell was included in the February trade that sent Anthony Davis to the Washington Wizards, ending his Mavericks tenure just months after it began. What once looked like a solid signing from Harrison quickly turned into a major miss.

Nico Harrison’s alternative plan didn’t look much better

And according to Afseth, Harrison’s Plan B might not have worked out much better either. Jones was arguably worse than Russell this season from a statistical standpoint. His counting numbers were far lower, but Jones’ value has never been predicated on gaudy stats—it comes from his ability to manage the game and consistently make the right play.

Still, even while maintaining his stellar assist-to-turnover ratio, Jones’ production dipped to just 3.0 points and 2.4 assists in 15.7 minutes per game with the Orlando Magic. That decline ultimately led to the team parting ways with him at the trade deadline.

Of course, the Mavericks eventually acquired Jones, but they quickly realized the guard Harrison once coveted wasn’t an ideal fit, and that his best days may already be behind him. Jones has since landed with his third team of the season. Meanwhile, Russell, who was dealt to the Washington Wizards, won’t appear in a game for Washington after opting not to report altogether.

All in all, Harrison’s roster decisions (both real and hypothetical) left plenty to be desired. Even though he ultimately chose Russell over Jones, his reported admiration for the latter only further underscores how questionable his evaluation of the situation truly was.