Mavericks nearly saved themselves from their Jalen Brunson disaster

In a recently published article by The Athletic, it was revealed that the Dallas Mavericks explored trading Jalen Brunson to the New York Knicks before the trade deadline in 2022, but Dallas ultimately didn't pull the trigger on a deal, which has become a disaster. They couldn't agree on the exact assets included in the deal, as the Mavericks' price tag seemed too high for New York to accept.

Dallas wanted first-round draft capital in return, while the Knicks preferred to part with one of their rising young players instead. These negotiations came down to fine-tuning, and the Mavericks decided to hold onto the former second-round pick rather than trade him.

Dallas lost Brunson for nothing in free agency later that year, following an electric 2022 playoff run, and this could have been prevented if they had gotten someone like Immanuel Quickley or Quentin Grimes back from New York that year. Both players were rumored to be included in different trade conversations between Dallas and New York surrounding Brunson, along with "numerous other iterations."

Mavericks had the chance to land Grimes or Quickley for Brunson

The fact that multiple packages were reported shows that these teams were nearing a deal, but as Fred Katz of The Athletic reported, the Mavericks were pushing for first-round picks in these deals with the Knicks. New York was not willing to give them up.

Dallas ultimately got Grimes back in a trade from the Detroit Pistons in 2024, but having him earlier would've given them the ability to nail him on an extension before Nico Harrison deemed that he needed to trade him because of not having the financial capacity to re-sign him in free agency (even though this was ultimately disproved). Meanwhile, Quickley has turned into a solid starting point guard for the Toronto Raptors and is someone Dallas also could've used.

Neither Grimes nor Quickley is close to the same level of player as Brunson is, as Brunson just led the Knicks to the NBA Finals being a No. 1 option, but they definitely would've helped Mavericks fans feel less bitter about losing Brunson for nothing.

The Mavericks tried offering a contract extension to Brunson in 2022, as his game and production were really starting to ascend, but they did this mid-season rather than before the season started. It has since been revealed that Brunson would've accepted the extension had it been offered earlier, which is yet another factor that played into the Mavericks losing Brunson for absolutely nothing.

Harrison's decision to trade Luka Doncic for a middling return will forever be his greatest screw-up throughout his time in Dallas, but the decision he and then Mavericks owner Mark Cuban made regarding Brunson is easily the second-worst screw-up that happened during his time as GM in Dallas.

It's a new era of Dallas basketball with Cooper Flagg spearheading the way, and Kyrie Irving is projected to still be around for at least next season, but Dallas could still have two of the top-10 players in the league that are still in their primes if they had better decision-makers in place.

Dallas can't keep losing superstars for absolutely nothing

At the very least, they clearly could've at least recouped some value for Brunson in 2022, but they failed to properly gauge his value until he played himself out of their price range in the 2022 playoffs.

The Mavericks' Brunson disaster continues to get worse with time, as Brunson has turned into a full-fledged superstar who has a dark-horse shot of leading the Knicks to a championship. It still wouldn't have served justice if Dallas got Quickley or Grimes in return for him, but it definitely could've helped mask the pain a little bit, especially with how bad Dallas needs another guard in the present day.

Dallas can't change the past at this point, though, and now they'll rely on more vetted management in Masai Ujiri and Mike Schmitz to properly evaluate talent, so they don't have another disaster where they lose someone like Brunson for absolutely nothing, or make a terrible deal involving a superstar like Doncic.

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