Ever since the Dallas Mavericks shockingly traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis just before midnight on February 1, Mavericks fans have been calling for Nico Harrison's job. Fans couldn't believe that Harrison would trade his franchise cornerstone less than a year after he led the Mavs to the NBA Finals, and Doncic being in the playoffs with the Lakers while Dallas is watching from home has made everything worse.
While the Mavs had the chance to make the playoffs following a win in the Play-In Tournament over the Sacramento Kings, they couldn't take care of business against the Memphis Grizzlies on the road, ultimately causing them to miss the playoffs and the chance to battle the Oklahoma City Thunder in a first-round series.
This is the last place that anyone would have expected the Mavs to be before the season began, as they were widely viewed as a top contender in the West from those around the league before the trade went down, and this fall from heaven can be blamed on Harrison and his trade deadline decisions.
The Mavericks can't fire Nico Harrison because of Anthony Davis
He decided to trade a generational superstar out of nowhere before later trading a potential-packed youngster in Quentin Grimes for Caleb Martin, simultaneously tanking Dallas' odds of being a true contender (along with injuries), and at this point, one of the most logical moves to make would be for Patrick Dumont to fire him right now. Dumont has heard fans' pleas to fire Harrison, and he felt like Harrison didn't effectively warn him about the fan backlash that would come along with this move (that Harrison himself underestimated), and the Mavericks are consistently losing significant revenue because of this move going down.
Firing Harrison would be the easiest thing to do right now, as it may be the first step to earning the fan base's trust back, but since Davis is on the roster, that may not be the smartest move for Dumont to make.
Harrison had been eyeing Davis for years, and if the Mavs were to fire Harrison right now, this could cause Davis to become disgruntled and force a trade out of Dallas. Davis and Harrison built a relationship long before he was traded to the Mavericks, and Dumont electing to fire Harrison would send the Mavericks into a rebuild less than a year after making the finals.
Regardless of how slim Dallas' chances of making the finals next year would be, trading Davis would cause their odds to plummet even more, and they wouldn't even have a chance to see out Harrison's vision that caused him to trade Doncic to begin with. The Mavs have to at least try to contend for a title with Davis and Kyrie Irving (once he returns from injury) leading the way, and firing Harrison would send their chances of that happening down the drain.
Dallas is flirting with disaster right now when it comes to their new-look roster headlined by Davis and Irving heading into the summer, especially since Irving has a player option, and Dumont's situation with Harrison and his job as the GM only makes things more complicated. The Mavs' future has gone from looking as promising as ever to one of the darkest in the league, and things would only get darker if they were to fire Harrison due to the possibility that Davis could be gone next.
It remains to be seen if the Mavs will be able to compete for a title with Davis as their No. 1 option, but considering how hard it is to win in the NBA, they have to at least try before pulling the plug on their new identity.
