Nico Harrison's bold future plan for Mavericks just got ripped to shreds

The Dallas Mavericks have been the talk of the town for the last two and a half months, but not for the same reason as last year.

Last year, the Mavericks put together an exceptional end-of-season stretch to secure the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference and advanced all the way to the NBA Finals, but this season, the chatter around Dallas has not been as positive. The Mavericks have been slammed time and time again for trading Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, and to make matters worse, Dallas has struggled tremendously since the trade, while the Lakers secured the No. 3 seed in the West.

The feeling around Dallas couldn't be more negative, regardless of their chance to clinch a playoff berth with a win over the Memphis Grizzlies tonight, and almost all of the blame is being aimed toward Mavs GM Nico Harrison.

Harrison is the one who targeted Davis and ultimately had the idea to trade Doncic less than a year after he led the Mavericks to the finals and had an MVP-caliber season, and the anger towards Harrison intensified this week following his secret press conference at the American Airlines Center with a hand-picked group of media members.

Nico Harrison doesn't care about the Mavericks' future

From Harrison throwing Mavericks fans under the bus to acting like there was a chance Doncic wouldn't sign a supermax with Dallas (even though it's abundantly clear he would), he also had his future plan with the Mavs ripped to shreds by ESPN's Tim MacMahon.

MacMahon pressed Harrison about his logic to trade away all of Dallas' first-round draft capital from 2027 until 2030 to build a team that went to the finals just to trade the player who led them there, and Harrison's answers made little to no sense.

He had no answer for why he traded a generational superstar in his mid-20s for Davis, who is now 32 years old, other than repeatedly saying "defense wins championships," and Harrison completely disregarding Dallas' future is a major concern, considering that his contract ends in three years.

From what Harrison said, he wants to finish out his contract in Dallas, but after that, he could decide to depart and leave the franchise in ruins due to the trades that included significant first-round draft capital he made to build around Doncic. NBA GMs have to do their best to balance the current needs of the team while also putting them in a good position to succeed in the future as well, and Harrison found a way to compromise the present and future in Dallas.

"It’s not what I believe. I’m asking your logic," MacMahon said to Harrison in regard to Dallas trading away many of their own first-round picks.

"Again, I think the future will hold. I think once we win, then that will change your mind," Harrison answered.

"And you didn’t believe that the team that went to the Finals last year with Luka as a centerpiece could continue to contend for championships," MacMahon asked.

"I’ll say this again. Defense wins championships," Harrison concluded.

Harrison couldn't give an answer as to why he traded away most of Dallas' first-round draft capital just to build around Doncic, just for him to trade him away later on, and his obsession with defense could ultimately lead to his downfall.

This is not the 90s anymore. Teams can succeed with having a superstar who isn't an elite defender. The Mavericks showed this last year, as they built a stellar defense around Doncic, and it helped lead them to the finals.

Dallas had the No. 7 defense in the NBA after the trade deadline last season while having an explosive offense on the other end led by two of the best offensive players of this generation in Kyrie Irving and Doncic, but that wasn't good enough for Harrison. He wanted the Mavericks to be the team that he built, and the success Dallas saw last year may be further away than he expects.

While the Mavericks are set up to be contenders for the next few years, it's undeniable that the team could be in serious trouble once Harrison's contract expires. It seems like he only cares about the team that will be on the floor when he's in charge, and the team that his successor has to run may be too far gone to remain one of the top teams in the West.

Dallas' future is on the line, and if Harrison decides to be even more aggressive and trade another first-round pick this summer, the Mavericks could quietly be a bottom-of-the-barrel team five years from now, and that would have never been the case if they had Doncic leading the way.

It didn't matter who Doncic had on the floor with him. He always gave the Mavericks the chance to win games, regardless of the opponent.

The same can't be said anymore.