Luka Dealt to Lakers: Nico Harrison is a Basketball Terrorist

[hakeemfaan]

I wonder how quickly apathy will take over the anger
Before long the owners will probably wish they had some angry fans left who cared

I remember being upset when Kidd was traded but Kidd at that time was still relatively new and he had not become the player he would. Luka was already one of the top 5, if not higher. However even then what helped was Nellie coming in, firing the previous coach, and really going on a media blitz on how upset he was that Kidd was traded.   At a minimum we need Nico gone.  The problem here is the owner also went and ran his mouth.  Were some of the things valid ? Yes. However there were also a lot of good things that Luka did here and to just badmouth him hasn’t sat well with a lot of fans. Dumont seems too arrogant to ever apologize but he needs to hire a PR firm to show some contrition and also give an assurance to fans that such monumental decisions will never be done in secrecy with majority  narrative being driven by one person. 

Coming to Nico, I just can’t give him any excuses. Whether Lindsey or he was responsible for some of the good decisions…I don’t care.  This was such a colossal blunder that there is no path forward for him with a lot of fans. Once betrayed, can never trust again.  You can’t give him a pass by saying he thought AD was good enough. That shows incompetence as a talent evaluator and team builder.  Any competent GM would ask for AD and Bron if short term was the goal. Else swapping AD and Luka adds bigger holes than what can be fixed.  Any reasonable evaluator can see that.   The other thing is Luka was still under contract.  Teams have traded for players before even without getting a clear assurance they would resign there. Toronto with Kawhi.  There was zero excuse to not open up the market.  If the end result of that was a ticked off Luka and even the Lakers offering  less than AD, you let Luka play out his contract and walk out.  There was no need to feel pressured and settle on a deal that makes no sense either short term or long term. 

Nico must go right away for the healing to begin.