Nico Harrison's costly vision is still killing the Mavericks even after he's gone

Nico Harrison believed that the best way to build the Dallas Mavericks was with a roster equipped to dominate with size and power down low, and this strategy has backfired significantly.

Harrison was fired on November 11, but his decisions are still hurting the Mavericks exactly a month and a half later. Dallas is 12-19 on the year, and Harrison's roster construction has put Jason Kidd in a hole that may be hard to escape as they try to make a push for a playoff spot.

While the Mavericks have won seven of their last 11 games, Kidd's frontcourt logjam has been obvious over the last few games. Harrison traded Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis with the vision that he would play power forward alongside Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford to form a three-headed monster, and this plan has put them in an extreme roster crunch.

Even with Lively II out for the year.

Nico Harrison didn't leave Jason Kidd much to work with

During his time in Dallas, Doncic helped turn Lively II and Gafford into two of the best pick-and-roll bigs in the Western Conference, but they didn't play much with another big on the floor. P.J. Washington was typically at the four, and the Mavs had the perfect balance of floor spacing, shooting, and vertical gravity.

Combine this with two all-world playmakers in Doncic and Kyrie Irving, and Dallas was set.

Their NBA Finals squad was perfectly constructed to run the West for years to come, but Harrison decided to roll the dice and change their identity completely less than a year after winning the Western Conference. Davis became the team's new centerpiece, but he isn't the same complement to Gafford and Lively II that Doncic was.

Davis is great on his own, but he doesn't elevate those around him in the way that Doncic does.

He is at his best at center, meaning that three of Dallas' best players are best utilized when playing the five. Having three of their top players excel most at the same position was a questionable strategy to begin with, and Kidd is having to deal with it now.

It's clear that Davis is much more effective at the five, but Dallas can't abandon Gafford, either. They at least have to share the floor for part of the game, but they haven't been the most compatible two-man combo over the last 10 months when they are on the court together.

Gafford isn't the best when having to switch on the perimeter, and Davis isn't as nimble-footed as he once was, either. This lineup's success is mostly dependent on the matchup they have (like the Denver Nuggets' Jonas Valanciunas-Nikola Jokic pairing on Tuesday night), and that's the last thing you want as a coach.

Kidd is being forced to use this lineup just to get Gafford on the floor more. Now imagine how tough things would be on Kidd if Lively II were still healthy...

"Just giving different options that we have to give Gaff a little bit more time on the floor," Kidd said when asked about Davis playing the four before the game against Denver on Tuesday night. "Because with AD at the five, it limits Gaff’s time. It’s gonna automatically knock him down to 15 to 17 minutes."

Despite early struggles and injuries this season, Gafford is still far too good to play less than 20 minutes every night. But with Davis being best at the five, this is the reality they're being forced into.

Davis and Gafford are the only two centers that Kidd seems to trust to play real minutes, and there aren't enough minutes to go to both of them. Davis is being forced to play at least some time at power forward to get Gafford some more minutes, and he isn't built to do this anymore.

Davis is much bulkier than he was when he was primarily playing power forward, and he is far too dominant at center to stray away from it now. He has the build to battle down low with the league's best big men, and his days of thriving as a power forward are long gone.

"To build a roster, you’ve gotta get him back to the four at some point in the game to give guys more time on the floor," Kidd said about Davis. "But with the way we’re built right now, AD’s got to play the five. That gives us the best chance to win."