“The Future 10 Years From Now… They Probably Bury Me And J By Then, Or We Bury Ourselves" - Mavericks GM Nico Harrison Tried His Best To Explain Why He Traded Luka Doncic And It Was A Complete Disaster

Garrett Ellwood. Getty Images.

I think it's safe to say this hasn't been the best 24 hours for Nico Harrison. The entire sports world thinks he just fumbled a generational talent with one of the worst trades in modern NBA history. A trade so insane that 99.9% of people were certain it was fake when they first heard about it. Imagine that? You do something so insane that not a soul thinks it could possibly be real? Sheesh, that's quite the matzah ball.

Early in the day, the some details out about what went into such a monumental decision, but we hadn't heard from the man himself. At some point Nico Harrison was going to have to face the media and try his best to explain what the hell he was thinking. I'm not sure what he could possibly say that would change how anyone feels, especially Mavs fans, but facing the music after a move like this is part of the gig.

Let's see how it went

Ah yes, totally normal and nothing to see here. Why have open lines of communication with your head coach before you make a FRANCHISE ALTERING decision? Even if you plan on doing it no matter what, why not get some basketball perspective? See how Kidd envisions AD fitting in, get his thoughts on surviving without Luka, keep him generally aware of what you're doing, I dunno is that crazy? Am I wrong to assume that's how a functional organization would work? I'm not sure I love hearing any of that explanation from Nico Harrison as a Mavs fan. You could tell by JKidd's face he has to be fuming inside too. I'm sure he feels disrespected to some degree that all this could go down without even the smallest of a heads up, wouldn't you?

Sadly, it gets worse

OK, now I feel like I'm being gaslit. Anthony Davis fits your timeframe more, at 31, than Luka Doncic does at 25? And your reasoning for that is because Kyrie is also older? You're more "win now" with AD than Luka, the player who just took you to the Finals? That makes absolutely zero sense.

On top of that, it got even worse as he continued on! It tells you everything you need to know about how these guys think. When Nico Harrison thinks about the "future" he thinks 3-4 years and that's it. His words, not mine. He's not thinking 10 years down the road or how it sets them up for that far in the future.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh what????

I would think that as a GM not only do you need to make decisions and moves that cover the immediate 3-4 years, but it also has beyond that in mind. The franchise isn't going to stop existing after 3-4 years, and again we're talking about punting on a 25 year old franchise level player. How do you not think about the next 10 years of your franchise if you're moving that type of asset? Isn't that like Step #1? In my head it goes something like this

Step 1: "OK, it's time to trade Luka unfortunately"

Step 2: "What does this mean for our future? What is the long term plan of bailing on a franchise player?"

Apparently not in the Mavs front office. I may just be a blogger on the internet, but I find that to be a completely insane way to run your basketball team. Granted there was nothing that Nico Harrison was going to be able to say that would change anyone's mind, but he most definitely made things 10000x worse. Even the spinzone was a disaster, so what does that tell you?

Luka finally broke his silence with a pretty PR statement

And it's only a matter of time before the other shoe drops and we get the behind the scenes goods as to what the hell is going on. You know that's dropping sometime early next week, and my guess is it's going to be must read stuff.