Nico Harrison's dangerous obsession is pushing Mavericks toward a full collapse

It's been over two months since Nico Harrison traded away Luka Doncic at the 11th hour for Anthony Davis. Harrison's main reasoning is that "defense wins championships." So far, with injuries mounting the team all season long, the Mavs holding a private press conference, as well as Harrison claiming that he didn't know how important Doncic was to Dallas, has led to serious anger amongst Mavs fans.

With these weird moves and remarks being made across the organization, it's time to get back to basketball. Harrison has a history of bringing in guys he has a personal relationship with, like Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving. Dumont now likely has his hands tied with leaving Harrison put at least until Davis finishes his tenure with Dallas to avoid frustrating him.

This has led to Harrison gaining a reputation for overpaying too much for the guys that he wants, such as not getting Austin Reaves and Dalton Knecht in the Doncic trade and not getting more for trading his young, upcoming talent, Quentin Grimes. Now, this unhealthy obsession that Harrison just might put the Mavs in the most toxic situation possible.

Nico Harrison's reckless spending is setting Mavericks up for failure

There's no doubt that Davis is one of the more dominant specimens in the NBA when he's 100 percent healthy. ESPN's Brian Windhorst called it "malpractice" that Reaves was not involved in the Doncic-Davis trade.

Following Harrison trading away Grimes, who was playing some of the best basketball of his NBA career, has gone off for some of the best games of his career with the Philadelphia 76ers. Caleb Martin has been known to provide some key playoff minutes from his Miami Heat career, but hasn't produced as much as Grimes, making the trade look like a dud from the Mavs organization.

During Harrison's recent press conference, Harrison noted that Martin was someone the organization had liked for a long time, and the Mavericks traded the better player in Grimes as part of this deal, and even gave up the Sixers' valuable 2025 second-round pick as part of the deal. This is one of the many examples that have exposed Harrison for trading too much for players he wants, and this trend is not leaning in Dallas' direction.

These young, talented guys like Doncic and Grimes who want to stay with their team are hard to come by, and it's Harrison who has simply overpaid for guys with little to no production in return. Of course, this discussion is unfair to guys like Max Christie, who is playing some of the best ball of his life. This is simply an observation from the Mavs front office, which continues to trade young guys but is not getting a fair return.

Now, it's apparent that the Mavs must keep their first-round pick this summer from what Harrison has said this offseason. With the Mavs having less than a 2 percent shot to have the ping pong balls in their favor for Cooper Flagg and the No. 1 pick, they need to jump on guys that will eventually take the reins while Irving is sidelined. Kon Kneuppel is looking like more of a long shot that would be a great fit for Dallas, but Egor Demin is someone who can quickly rise to stardom in Dallas, not to mention, Demin is a former Real Madrid star.

With Harrison overpaying for guys and not getting a fair return, the Mavs obviously have no choice but to keep their first-round pick this summer and build off a young piece for the future. Doncic was once in this position before he was traded for much too little of a return package.