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https://dallashoopsjournal.com/p/nico-harrison-takeover-dallas-mavericks-luka-doncic-trade?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=621353&post_id=161812840&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=17lwnj&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email



Sources informed DallasHoopsJournal.com that among the factors that led Dumont to provide the green light was an interaction he had with Dončić, focused on addressing perceived conditioning concerns. This occurred before Harrison initiated trade talks for Dončić at his coffee meeting with Pelinka in Dallas before the Mavericks faced the Lakers on Jan. 7. As one might expect, that interaction involving Dončić and Dumont did not go well. Weeks later, Dončić was traded, with a heavy run of media leaks emphasizing conditioning to follow.

The intel provided to Dumont by the Harrison-led basketball operations department enabled Harrison to obtain permission to make the controversial trade to acquire a player he had long sought, Davis. Dumont doubled down on that narrative just days after the trade, further illustrating how effective the Harrison regime’s selling of this problem proved to be. In an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Dumont made his position unmistakably clear. The man who had just authorized the trade of a generational superstar had publicly questioned Dončić’s commitment.


YEAH..It was all NICO! What a joke. That article pretty much goes through everything. Worth a read! Crazy stuff.

Nico doesn't deserve all the hate he's getting. That said, he should have done everything in his power to have that trade not go through. 25 other teams would have outbid that offer. Dumont will use the excuse of "bad interaction" to try and save his image.

I mean, Nico could have literally called the Nuggets and offered Luka for Jokic. It would have been a legitimate discussion.

I've said this previously but Nico is the fall guy imo. The whole reason there is no chance he gets fired is because he was just doing the owner's bidding. It's Dumont who wanted Luka traded. It doesn't absolve Nico from responsibility - any GM with integrity would've quit if told he has to trade Luka. But it just means the reason ownership won't fire him isn't because they are tolerating this decision, it's because they initiated the decision. I have no proof of this, of course, other than the fact that no other explanation makes sense (again, imho).

I already posted when the trade happened that there was a good chance that Luka was probably indifferent to the owners which the owners didn't like.
What is the point of selling your soul to the devil and marrying the daughter of Miriam Adelson, a horrible and evil person, if millionaire athletes like Doncic can treat you like just another guy?

Mavs fans don’t deserve this garbage. Luka should have been a Mav for life.

What makes it even worse is that they don’t control a lot of their picks going forward. kyrie and AD are on the wrong side of 30 with a mountain of injuries. With a terrible team and no picks, it’s going to get ugly.

As a Raptors fan we can almost relate with the Vince trade getting nothing back but Luka is magnitudes better asa player and WANTED TO STAY.


just stinks. Mavs fans should boycott and not show up next season. I know I would

JJ_PR wrote:Nico doesn't deserve all the hate he's getting. That said, he should have done everything in his power to have that trade not go through. 25 other teams would have outbid that offer. Dumont will use the excuse of "bad interaction" to try and save his image.

I mean, Nico could have literally called the Nuggets and offered Luka for Jokic. It would have been a legitimate discussion.

come on, why would any GM do something that dumb?

C3H6N6O6 wrote:I already posted when the trade happened that there was a good chance that Luka was probably indifferent to the owners which the owners didn't like.
What is the point of selling your soul to the devil and marrying the daughter of Miriam Adelson, a horrible and evil person, if millionaire athletes like Doncic can treat you like just another guy?

Lol, I don't like that the player isn't nice to me, who is this, Donald Sterling?

og15 wrote:

JJ_PR wrote:Nico doesn't deserve all the hate he's getting. That said, he should have done everything in his power to have that trade not go through. 25 other teams would have outbid that offer. Dumont will use the excuse of "bad interaction" to try and save his image.

I mean, Nico could have literally called the Nuggets and offered Luka for Jokic. It would have been a legitimate discussion.

come on, why would any GM do something that dumb?

I don't know if Denver considers it, but an offer of Luka Doncic for Nikola Jokic is far from insulting. I'm just trying to put into perspective how bad Dallas messed up with the Luka trade.

This thread wasn't made to absolve Nico of blame. More about showing people that it was a collective effort more than anything. There is absolutely 0 percent chance that trade happens unless the owner greenlits it.

playoffs wrote:I've said this previously but Nico is the fall guy imo. The whole reason there is no chance he gets fired is because he was just doing the owner's bidding. It's Dumont who wanted Luka traded. It doesn't absolve Nico from responsibility - any GM with integrity would've quit if told he has to trade Luka. But it just means the reason ownership won't fire him isn't because they are tolerating this decision, it's because they initiated the decision. I have no proof of this, of course, other than the fact that no other explanation makes sense (again, imho).

Assuming it was the owner that decided to do this, why does that mean Nico won't get fired? You're assuming the owner would take accountability for the move rather than just blame it on Nico. Taking a bullet for someone doesn't suddenly make you bullet proof. Nico is actually set him up as the perfect scapegoat at the moment because nobody would bat an eye if he was fired.

https://dallasbasketball.com/news/dallas-mavericks-news-espn-first-take-stephen-a-smith-nico-harrison

However, on a recent episode of First Take, (Stephen A.) Smith's findings suggest that Harrison was the catalyst for the Doncic trade.

"Over the last week, I've received several phone calls where I've been told... it was Nico [Harrison] who went to [Mavs management] and said, 'I want to trade Luka Doncic,'" Smith claimed. "And I'm saying if that's true, he's owned it."

The person quoted in the first post is, I believe, Grant Afseth. Excellent bball journo and connected.

The most connected Dallas Mavs journo, however, is Tim MacMahon. He's basically been a Nico mouthpiece for years. MacMahon is saying this was a Nico move, Nico was the main force. If anyone would know that, it's MacMahon.

Nico fired/alienated people from the team closer to Luka starting before the 2023-24 season, I believe.This has been building for years and at least the first "Luka guy" left when Cuban still controlled things, not Dumont. But Nico knew Cuban would never agree to let go of Luka so that would have to happen later.

The first time I got the sense something was not right in Dallas was when either Kidd or Nico was talking about Kyrie as the leader of the team this year. Before the deal. You have a 33/9/9 guy who led you to The Finals last year and led the playoffs in PTS, REB, AST and STL and Kyrie is your leader.

That's when my antenna went up. Luka was being marginalized, to an extent, and at the time I didn't understand why.

Now we all know why.

Yet again.

The problem isn’t trading Luka.

The problem is only talking to one team about trading him.

I can absolutely see both Nico and Dumont wanting rid of him. I can understand his conditioning rubbing up the wrong way.

But unless there’s ulterior motives to this trade then you shop him league wide and drive the price up. Heck even if you decide that Anthony Davis is the best option after that, you still get another first or two, or young players, from the Lakers or a third team.

Speaking to one team makes NO sense at all unless there is some kind of outside influence, or the owners want to deliberately tank the value of the team for relocation.

Trading your franchise player is 100% ownership. Nico did a great job building around Luka.

Tracymcgoaty wrote:This thread wasn't made to absolve Nico of blame. More about showing people that it was a collective effort more than anything. There is absolutely 0 percent chance that trade happens unless the owner greenlits it.

Ofcourse the new owners deserve HUGE portion of the blame. Wether they asked for it to be happen or heard the suggestion from Nico and greenlit, either way it's on their lap. They made it happen.



I mean its not a coincidence that Luka was traded literally as soon as they bought the organisation? There was less then zero procent chance it would occurred under Marc Cuban (or any Bball savvy owner). Nico would gotten fired on the spot if he suggested it then.

Still doesn’t explain the biggest problem with this trade. Why only the lakers and why such crappy return?

playoffs wrote:I've said this previously but Nico is the fall guy imo. The whole reason there is no chance he gets fired is because he was just doing the owner's bidding. It's Dumont who wanted Luka traded. It doesn't absolve Nico from responsibility - any GM with integrity would've quit if told he has to trade Luka. But it just means the reason ownership won't fire him isn't because they are tolerating this decision, it's because they initiated the decision. I have no proof of this, of course, other than the fact that no other explanation makes sense (again, imho).

No one is quitting a multi million job because your boss told you to fire an employee even if they’re your favorite.

Yes Nico is the fall guy, and to flame the dude for a decision coming from the people that own the team is exactly what the owners want. “Sell the team” should be the chant, not “Fire Nico”

JJ_PR wrote:Nico doesn't deserve all the hate he's getting. That said, he should have done everything in his power to have that trade not go through. 25 other teams would have outbid that offer. Dumont will use the excuse of "bad interaction" to try and save his image.

I mean, Nico could have literally called the Nuggets and offered Luka for Jokic. It would have been a legitimate discussion.

Nico deserves all the hate he got, and then some more

As far as the quote in the first post, that wouldn't be hard to explain in terms of the Nico Did It perspective.

Luka has had numerous injuries in recent years. Nico's theory was that Luka wasn't in shape so he was getting hurt. Luka's people's theory was that Luka wasn't taking enough time when coming back from injuries to heal properly. My personal theory is that Luka could be in better shape but Dallas overworked him and that was a significant factor in the injuries. And, Luka plays through injuries. Sometimes that's ok and sometimes it's dumb.

Luka rested his reinjured calf longer than Dallas thought he should but he hasn't been hurt again since he came back. Team Luka is looking correct so far, as is Team HotRocks34 given what happened to Kyrie after Dallas kicked his minutes up following the Luka trade.

Anyways, back to Dumont. The first post says:

The intel provided to Dumont by the Harrison-led basketball operations department enabled Harrison to obtain permission to make the controversial trade to acquire a player he had long sought

My guess on the Luka-Dumont interaction is that Dumont asked Nico what was up with Luka's injuries and Nico told him that Luka wasn't in shape so he was getting hurt. And then Dumont went and spoke to Luka about the matter and Luka blew it off because he thought that line of thinking was coming from Nico.

Not a smart move by Luka but it all fits.

As the quote says, it was the Nico Guys' information that led to Dumont approving the deal.

In short, Dumont got played by a guy who wanted to get rid of Luka.

MacMahon now is saying that Dumont seems to be leaning towards hiring another executive to come in and help Nico and that the "in Nico we trust" (his words) era is over.

Basically, Dumont needs to hire another executive to protect Dumont from his own basketball ignorance so that he doesn't get played again.

If I remember right, Cuban hired an assistant GM after Nico's first year to help Nico out. So Dumont doing something similar wouldn't really be breaking the mold, although Dumont might be doing it for a different reason.

Calvin Klein wrote:Still doesn’t explain the biggest problem with this trade. Why only the lakers and why such crappy return?

Because Nico was fixated on getting his guy, Anthony Davis.

And the trade sucked because Pelinka was able to exploit the fact that Nico wanted to keep things secret because if word of the trade got out ahead of time, the backlash would have made the trade impossible.

Nico wanted Luka gone and he wanted Davis. Those were the two priorities.

Someone who looks like Dumont criticizing the player who played the most total minutes in the league counting the playoffs last season for his conditioning is pretty rich. I wonder if Luka fat shamed him

JJ_PR wrote:

og15 wrote:

JJ_PR wrote:Nico doesn't deserve all the hate he's getting. That said, he should have done everything in his power to have that trade not go through. 25 other teams would have outbid that offer. Dumont will use the excuse of "bad interaction" to try and save his image.

I mean, Nico could have literally called the Nuggets and offered Luka for Jokic. It would have been a legitimate discussion.

come on, why would any GM do something that dumb?

I don't know if Denver considers it, but an offer of Luka Doncic for Nikola Jokic is far from insulting. I'm just trying to put into perspective how bad Dallas messed up with the Luka trade.

It is insulting not because Luka is not good enough, but because it's an obvious NO kind of trade, and the opposing GM would be wondering if your head is right for even asking