Luka Dealt to Lakers: Nico Harrison is a Basketball Terrorist

[SleepingHero]

@TheMavsBlog
After reading Iztok’s piece, I’m even more heartbroken.

Nico Harrison forced out everyone around Luka.

Casey Smith
Igor Kokoškov
Marko Milić
Anže Maček
Javier Barrio Calvo

And then forced Luka out himself.

[KillerLeft]

I thought it was photoshopped when I first saw it this morning. I think he'll be motivated and take his conditioning seriously in LA.

Look at him here vs that recent picture:

https://x.com/isaaclharris/status/188597...85531?s=46&t=4w35gotNXtBJnqxbaL7e9w

He hasn't looked like that or moved well since the bubble. 

If I'm being honest, I DON'T expect him to take his conditioning seriously in LA, but I suppose LeBron might be able to reach him, when nobody else could. 

It doesn't make me any happier to be a Mavs fan today, however.

[mvossman]

I also forgot to mention the total lack of class Nico showed bashing Luka. Its like he is doing everything he can to be the most hated man in Dallas.

[SleepingHero]

Nico surpassing Jerry Jones as the villain of Dallas in 48 hours was not on my bingo card.

Dude seriously needs to be banned from
This city. Every bar should turn him away. Every gas station he should be shamed.


Ass of a person

[Smitty]

“A person close to the situation described this trade as the ultimate Harrison power trip, calling him a power-hungry man. Another observer said Harrison removed anyone who held a different view.“

This is absolutely wild.

From @iztok_franko latest piece.

[BigDirk41]

“A person close to the situation described this trade as the ultimate Harrison power trip, calling him a power-hungry man. Another observer said Harrison removed anyone who held a different view.“

This is absolutely wild.

From @iztok_franko latest piece.

He kept using the word aligned in his press conference so I'm assuming Luka was aligned with Nico. I'm sorry, but Luka is so good that you find a new GM if the GM doesn't like him. At a minimum get a competent GM that can get a proper return for Luka.

[BigDirk41]

He hasn't looked like that or moved well since the bubble. 

If I'm being honest, I DON'T expect him to take his conditioning seriously in LA, but I suppose LeBron might be able to reach him, when nobody else could. 

It doesn't make me any happier to be a Mavs fan today, however.

Not that it really matters since Luka isn't ours anymore, but I think LeBron will change the whole trajectory of Luka's career for the better. Luka may be the better player currently, but he's not top dog there and he will want to impress his idol LeBron. I really think we will see a brand new Luka next season that will scare the entire NBA and probably get Nico fired. That's just my opinion though. Nothing motives someone like a bad breakup.

[KillerLeft]

“A person close to the situation described this trade as the ultimate Harrison power trip, calling him a power-hungry man. Another observer said Harrison removed anyone who held a different view.“

This is absolutely wild.

From @iztok_franko latest piece.

To be honest, I doubt that this perspective has much validity. I like Iztok Franco's basketball knowledge, and he has given us a lot of good content, but he's basically to Luka what Windhorst was to LeBron, at least in a Europe/America crossover sort of way. It's not at all surprising that his coverage of this is almost totally from the perspective of Luka's camp. It's quite literally his livelihood. 

It's not shocking that a GM would try to change the culture of his team, especially given the culture of the Mavs he inherited. I, personally, do not fall into the group that believes when you have a player like Luka "you do whatever he wants." I think that has been proven again and again not to be the way to go, and have said so since before Carlisle left. 

For example, the best period of LeBron's career was the brief stint in Miami, the only organization able to operate above needing to satisfy his every whim on a day to day basis while he played there. 

Harrison being willing to do what he thinks right, even when it rubs his superstar wrong, isn't what's wrong here. It's the potential that what he thinks right won't work, and that we'll all be left dealing with it long after he's gone if so. It's not just that he gave up on Luka, it's that he chose to do it in a way that had never crossed the mind of even one person. 

Again, I think the choices were to either continue to try to make it work with Luka, hoping he matured, or to START OVER, using Luka's departure as a lifeline to the next era. You can rationalize this weekend's events by saying "well, they didn't want picks. They didn't want to start over. Given that set of goals, Anthony Davis is the best we reasonably could've expected." And, you'd be right about that. But, without Luka, I don't believe trying to win right now is the right goal. That's what it comes down to, for me.

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

That's what it comes down to, for me.

[Smitty]

To be honest, I doubt that this perspective has much validity, I like Iztok Franco's basketball knowledge, and he has given us a lot of good content, but he's basically to Luka what Windhorst was to LeBron, at least in a Europe/America crossover sort of way. It's not at all surprising that his coverage of this is almost totally from the perspective of Luka's camp. It's quite literally his livelihood. 

It's not shocking that a GM would try to change the culture of his team, especially given the culture of the Mavs he inherited. I, personally, do not fall into the group that believes when you have a player like Luka "you do whatever he wants." I think that has been proven again and again not to be the way to go, and have said so since before Carlisle left. 

For example, the best period of LeBron's career was the brief stint in Miami, the only organization able to operate above needing to satisfy his every whim on a day to day basis while he played there. 

Harrison being willing to do what he thinks right, even when it rubs his superstar wrong, isn't what's wrong here. It's the potential that what he thinks right won't work, and that we'll all be left dealing with it long after he's gone if so. It's not just that he gave up on Luka, it's that he chose to do it in a way that had never crossed the mind of even one person. 

Again, I think the choices were to either continue to try to make it work with Luka, hoping he matured, or to START OVER, using Luka's departure as a lifeline to the next era. You can rationalize this weekend's events by saying "well, they didn't want picks. They didn't want to start over. Given that set of goals, Anthony Davis is the best we reasonably could've expected." And, you'd be right about that. But, without Luka, I don't believe trying to win right now is the right goal. That's what it comes down to, for me.

I agree with most of your take. To add to it. 

Fine, trade Luka for the reasons many have laid out. But for Anthony Davis and only Anthony Davis? The guy that has motor issues and is listed on the injury report every day? That's the guy you want to put all your chips in for? I don't get it.

[KillerLeft]

Not that it really matters since Luka isn't ours anymore, but I think LeBron will change the whole trajectory of Luka's career for the better. Luka may be the better player currently, but he's not top dog there and he will want to impress his idol LeBron. I really think we will see a brand new Luka next season that will scare the entire NBA and probably get Nico fired. That's just my opinion though. Nothing motives someone like a bad breakup.

Very posible. 

Also possible that Luka is annoyed to have to deal with someone having a bigger presence than his, annoyed at losing that record-breaking super max, annoyed at scads of fans who are not only not automatically going to worship at his feet, but will be applying comparisons to guys like Kobe, LeBron, Magic Johnson, etc. Playing in LA comes with different challenges. 

I think it's possible the rest of LeBron's career will seem like an annoyance Luka has to wait out, basically. I think Luka is very unlikely to want to learn anything from him. Could be wrong, but I think Luka is a dude who already thinks he's got everything figured out. It's part of why I can understand why Dallas wouldn't want to give him that Super Max.

Don't confuse what I'm saying - I fully expect Luka to go full killer mode and destroy the Mavericks for the next few years, but...

At the end of the day, I think his habits are ingrained and cultural, to a certain extent. I think Vlade Divac saw all this coming years ago. I think Luka's Dad is kind of a clown, and I don't think Luka will ever be the type to spend $1M per annum, as LeBron does, to compete with others in terms of how he maintains his body. I think by the end of his next contract, the talk of him being an all-time top 5-10 player will have ended, and it's possible he won't play a very long career. He has literally said he doesn't want to play 15-20 years like those type of guys do.

[Jym]

I wonder what Mastermind Nico has planned next.
we don't have any high-level shot creation and Kidd doesn't view Kyrie as a point guard

[BigDirk41]

I wonder what Mastermind Nico has planned next.
we don't have any high-level shot creation and Kidd doesn't view Kyrie as a point guard

Probably something that will give us the #1 defense in the NBA and dead last offense..lol

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

Ben Simmons lol

[Smitty]

Ben Simmons lol

Oh my, I hope you're right. Burn it down!

[KillerLeft]

I wonder what Mastermind Nico has planned next.
we don't have any high-level shot creation and Kidd doesn't view Kyrie as a point guard

Do we know he isn't viewed as a PG? Or, do we know he isn't viewed as a PICK AND ROLL PG? 

Do we even know this will still be a pick and roll team now? Or, are we about to see the offense Kidd has really been wanting to run this entire time, only he's been trying to build around Luka, who is 100% a pick and roll player? 

I do not know the answers to these questions, to be clear. I'm really struggling to imagine what comes next, and like you, I'm hopeful there will be another move, one that will offer a hint of what they're planning. 

One thing is for sure: this trade isn't at all like the last deadline's deals. Gafford is a pick and roll big, and we knew EXACTLY how he'd fit. PJW came from a wildly different offense (don't sleep on the idea that this new team might make you like his offense more, btw), but he was coming from an almost identical defensive system (he said so himself). So, he was able to fit right into a hole we all knew existed. 

This feels like a complete overhaul of what the team is hoping to accomplish on the court. Davis is going to be in the mid-range a lot with the ball, kind of like Marshall and PJW have been a lot this season. I don't know that we're going to see much pick and roll for a while (maybe we will, not sure) and if we don't, I literally wonder if Gafford and Lively have much utility at all on the offensive end.

[Jym]

Ben Simmons lol

I mean.....
it'd probably help in the regular season

[fifteenth]

Very posible. 

Also possible that Luka is annoyed to have to deal with someone having a bigger presence than his, annoyed at losing that record-breaking super max, annoyed at scads of fans who are not only not automatically going to worship at his feet, but will be applying comparisons to guys like Kobe, LeBron, Magic Johnson, etc. Playing in LA comes with different challenges. 

I think it's possible the rest of LeBron's career will seem like an annoyance Luka has to wait out, basically. I think Luka is very unlikely to want to learn anything from him. Could be wrong, but I think Luka is a dude who already thinks he's got everything figured out. It's part of why I can understand why Dallas wouldn't want to give him that Super Max.

Don't confuse what I'm saying - I fully expect Luka to go full killer mode and destroy the Mavericks for the next few years, but...

At the end of the day, I think his habits are ingrained and cultural, to a certain extent. I think Vlade Divac saw all this coming years ago. I think Luka's Dad is kind of a clown, and I don't think Luka will ever be the type to spend $1M per annum, as LeBron does, to compete with others in terms of how he maintains his body. I think by the end of his next contract, the talk of him being an all-time top 5-10 player will have ended, and it's possible he won't play a very long career. He has literally said he doesn't want to play 15-20 years like those type of guys do.

As hard as it is to read, what you say jives with what Luka's refusal to learn to take care himself has pointed towards for me. I guess I had a little hope left that he'd get it figured out, but I skew hopeful. 

It's hard to give much pushback about folks not liking the owners. And Nico's actions do seem short term focused for me. 

So, it's hard for me to really find anything likeable about all of this. No joy comes from seeing Luka fail to get this figured out with Dallas. If we had kept him, we'd at least get to hold out hope that Luka would change while we continued to watch fun playoff basketball with partially injured Luka gutting out crazy wins, before losing to this year's healthy, better team. 

We would have watched Luka's career, and it most likely would have turned out to be a disappointment compared to expectations due to his lack of self-discipline, but at least we'd have something. 

Instead, we're left with injury prone Kyrie and Davis. They actually take care of themselves and still can't stay on the court. 

I'm all for PJ and Lively. But they need a superstar to support. 

We're left with blah.

[cow]

I think one of two things are true.  Either:

1.  Nico is an idiot, or

2.  There is more to "the Luka Doncic business" than we may ever know.

I don't think Nico is an idiot.  

Based on the universal reaction to the return on the trade from fans, media, and NBA executives/team officials, there is no doubt that Nico is an idiot.  I'm more than fine with trading Doncic, but the return is borderline criminal.

[Smitty]

Do we know he isn't viewed as a PG? Or, do we know he isn't viewed as a PICK AND ROLL PG? 

Do we even know this will still be a pick and roll team now? Or, are we about to see the offense Kidd has really been wanting to run this entire time, only he's been trying to build around Luka, who is 100% a pick and roll player? 

I do not know the answers to these questions, to be clear. I'm really struggling to imagine what comes next, and like you, I'm hopeful there will be another move, one that will offer a hint of what they're planning. 

One thing is for sure: this trade isn't at all like the last deadline's deals. Gafford is a pick and roll big, and we knew EXACTLY how he'd fit. PJW came from a wildly different offense (don't sleep on the idea that this new team might make you like his offense more, btw), but he was coming from an almost identical defensive system (he said so himself). So, he was able to fit right into a hole we all knew existed. 

This feels like a complete overhaul of what the team is hoping to accomplish on the court. Davis is going to be in the mid-range a lot with the ball, kind of like Marshall and PJW have been a lot this season. I don't know that we're going to see much pick and roll for a while (maybe we will, not sure) and if we don't, I literally wonder if Gafford and Lively have much utility at all on the offensive end.

I also wonder about the offense going forward. Kidd is not known for that side of the ball. Pick and Pop with Kyrie and AD at the 5 seems like a late game set they will use frequently. They will have to get Klay involved more with his movement shooting. PJ and AD will operate more in the mid-range, something both are known for.

Honestly, the defense does intrigue me some. A front court of PJ, AD, Lively is suffocating in most matchups. Of course, I prefer PJ at the 4 and AD at the 5 and think that's what we'll see in the clutch.

I'm guessing we'll see more post play from the bigs. None of which are back to the basket type players. It will be more difficult to find penetration from the perimeter. Maybe we're going to see a lot of elbow jumpers from AD like we did with Dirk. Some inside-out game. Running more in transition.