Nico Harrison’s press conference, finally more transparent, still showed the Mavs’ unsure future

On Monday, Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison finally admitted to some mistakes in a season-ending press conference following the team’s Play-In Tournament defeat to the Memphis Grizzlies last week. While Harrison stood by the still shocking trade of Luka Dončić, just as he did last week in a strange closed-door media session, he conceded that the fan base’s connection to the superstar was greater he had realized.

“I did know that Luka was important to the fan base,” Harrison said. “I didn’t quite know to what level.”

The trade of the 26-year-old star has thrown the Mavericks into chaos over the past months, and the team is now headed into a summer with looming questions about personnel decisions, the health of players, and Harrison’s own job security. Only team governor Patrick Dumont, it’s believed, could end the momentum that seems poised to have Dallas run back its roster with Harrison at the helm, as DLLS reported on more thoroughly earlier on Monday. This season, Harrison never had the chance to see his envisioned starting five play together.

“The way we look at it was if you’re putting a team on the floor that’s Kyrie (Irving), Klay (Thompson), P.J. (Washington), Anthony Davis and (Dereck) Lively (II),” Harrison said, “we feel that’s a championship-caliber team and would have been winning at a high level, and that would have quieted some of the outrage.”

It was injuries that cost Davis 18 games after he was injured in his team debut and ended Irving’s season after tearing his ACL in March. Harrison, asked if he regretted speaking only to the media once following the trade prior to last week, conceded that he and the team could have handled it better. While Harrison said he had hoped his transformed roster would speak for itself on the court, injuries prevented that and Harrison’s silence only grew more noticeable as the team’s dismal season continued, including widespread chants of “Fire Nico” throughout Mavericks home games.

Harrison, though initially appearing nervous, spoke like a man who expected to return to the team and finish out the three years on his contract. He also said he expects the team’s core to remain intact, including Irving, who could exercise a player option and become a free agent this summer. “Kyrie is a big part of what our future is, and that’s not going to change whether he opts in or opts out,” Harrison said. “It’s too early to speculate what Kyrie’s going to do, but what I do feel is going to happen is he’s going to be a Maverick next year.” It’s been rumored Irving and the team are likeliest to agree to a three-year deal that aligns the 33-year-old guard with both Davis’s contract and Harrison’s, too.

Of course, Harrison has also the team was a Klay Thompson away from contending in last year’s NBA Finals, which Dallas lost to the Boston Celtics, and referred to Derrick Jones Jr. as “priority 1A and 1B” heading into the past offseason before declining to re-sign him. It would be reasonable to approach his statements on such personnel decisions with skepticism until proven otherwise. Still, it’s what Harrison says is the plan ahead for the Mavericks.

Many quotes from Harrison’s press conference, similar to last week’s, has been poorly received on Monday by fans and those around the NBA. It was likely inevitable no matter what Harrison said; there’s no bringing back Dončić. While Harrison once again expressed his belief that fans would come around to his vision if the team starts winning again, that certainly will not be enough for all of them.

“When you have 20,000 people in the stadium chanting ‘Fire Nico,’ you really feel it,” Harrison said. “I use the word ‘awesome,’ but not in a positive way. You can really feel how they feel. But yes, I feel them. How am I doing? I’m good. I said this last week. God has got me covered. I have an amazing family and support group to get me through it. I absolutely feel it, but my job is to make decisions that I feel are in the best interests of this organization. I have to stand by the decisions.

“Some of them are going to be unpopular. This is clearly one that is unpopular.”