“We Had to Keep It Tight”: Mavericks GM Nico Harrison Breaks Down How Doncic Trade Came to be

Dallas Mavericks GM Nico Harrison and head coach Jason Kidd opened up on the Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade that shocked the world on Sunday (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Never say never in the NBA.

Just past midnight Eastern time on early Sunday morning, it was reported that the Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers and Utah Jazz agreed to a three-team trade that ultimately landed Luka Doncic in L.A. and Anthony Davis in Dallas.

Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris are headed to the Lakers, while the Mavericks also acquired Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick. The Utah Jazz jumped in to facilitate the transaction, as they picked up Jalen Hood-Schifino and two future second-round picks.

On Sunday morning, Dallas held a team meeting to discuss the change on a game day in Cleveland. Most were mum on the subject and focused on the task at hand, with little questions. RG was on the scene to get head coach Jason Kidd’s reaction.

“We’ve got to be professional, but also you want to give your flowers to Luka and Maxi and Smooth (Markieff Morris) for what they have done,” Mavs head coach Jason Kidd said to a room filled with reporters and cameras in Cleveland. “When you talk about Luka in the seven years with the Mavs, he’s beloved, and to be able to watch it up close by the city of Dallas, he's a global icon. And so just to be able to talk as a group.”

In a show of class, Kidd took a moment to mention his former players and how appreciated they were in the locker room, all while challenging the rest of his players to step up in their stead.

“Now, we've been faced with a lot of injuries, so we've had a lot of conversations or meetings about the next man up, and that's the situation as a coach I have to do,” Kidd said. “But we talk about Maxi, we're going to miss Maxi, a true pro, and we're going to miss Smooth, a pro in that locker room and was always ready to play if needed. But when you talk about getting AD and Christie, we believe that those guys are going to help us win.”

Before the game, though, Kidd and Mavs president of basketball operations Nico Harrison spoke publicly on the matter for the first time since it was made official at 10:05 a.m. ET.

“We definitely understand the magnitude of what just transpired. It's not lost on us,” Harrison stated.

“Definitely would like to thank Luka for his brilliance and, over the last four years since we've been here, what we've been able to accomplish, as well as Maxi Kleber. When he got hurt the other day, and I go in the back and check on him, the first thing he says is, 'Sorry for getting hurt.' But that just kind of goes to the type of person he is. And then also, Smooth (Markieff Morris). He was such a great guy in the locker room. So I just want to thank all those guys for their contribution to get us to where we're at.”

Kidd took a moment to echo Harrison’s comments while also recounting how excited he was to come with a star player of Luka Doncic’s caliber.

“As Nico's brought up, we are aligned, right,” Kidd added. “Luka, when I first came here excited about the opportunity to coach an upcoming star who became a megastar, I was just blessed to have that opportunity to coach him. But when you look at the vision of the team and what Nico wants to build, I truly support that and truly believe that the players that we're getting are the ones that can help us achieve that. And that's to win a championship.”

Harrison denied any indication that Doncic was frustrated with the team or that he wouldn’t have signed a long-term, supermax contract with the Mavs.

Asked if Doncic didn’t fit the culture that the team sought after anymore, Harrison rejected that narrative too.

“One thing about me, I'm not going to talk bad about any players. I mean, that's not going to do us or me any good,” Harrison said. “I'd just say there are levels to it and there's people that fit the culture and there's people that come in and add to the culture. And those are two distinct things. And I believe the people that are coming in are adding to the culture.”

According to Harrison, Mavs owner Patrick Dumont jokingly laughed at him when he initially proposed moving Doncic. He maintains that Dumont entrusts the front office to make decisions regarding the team itself.

From Coffee to Bombshell

Despite their insistence on being in lockstep, Kidd revealed that he found out about the massive trade in “the eleventh hour, right before it was announced” and that it was “a little shocking.” Harrison noted that he had to keep the talks as close to the vest as possible with Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka, to whom he gave credit, as discussions never leaked. He also disclosed that Dallas didn’t contact anybody besides Los Angeles for a potential move.

“Trades don't happen at the smallest level without stuff getting out,” Harrison said. “And Rob and I were able to have really intense conversations over the course of three or four weeks that started out as a coffee [meeting] that was more, 'Hey, would you ever?' (and), 'I don't know, would I? Let me think.' And then it built upon that. We kept it between us. We had to. We had to keep it tight.”

Harrison admitted that he built the deal with Kidd in mind. It was about finding the right fit to jumpstart the team in a big way with a push toward the NBA playoffs.

“J-Kidd didn't know about it, but J-Kidd and I are aligned,” continued Harrison.

“We talk about archetypes and we talk about the culture that we want to create. So I know the type of players that he likes without actually talking to him, and J-Kidd coached him when they won a championship. So, I think when you're aligned with your coach like that, I know the type of players that he likes. And so I felt good about it making sense to where we're trying to go.”

Where are the Mavericks trying to go? The NBA Finals again. How do they believe they can do that? With defense. Davis, to them, is the way they do that.

“I think the long term is the time frame,” Harrison said. “I think he fits our time frame if you pair him with Kyrie [Irving] and the rest of the guys, he fits right along with our timeframe to win now and win in the future. And the future to me is three, four years from now. The future, 10 years from now, I don't know. They'll probably bury me and J by then, or we bury ourselves.”

Trying to focus on the game itself, Kidd wasn’t entertaining questions about lineup fit and the schematics of it all, although he did hint that Davis will play the 4 mostly with Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II, as well as PJ Washington in some instances.

“AD is the one that we truly believe fits with D-Live and Gaff and PJ,” Kidd said. “When you look at going forward, we're looking at the window to win now. And what AD and Christie, not to forget about Christie, he's a young wing that we believe fits.”

Speaking of fit, Kidd is conscious of the fact that his team will need time to adapt and develop cohesiveness on the court, but he remains confident that the team jell quickly.

“I’ve had the luxury of coaching AD,” Kidd said. “We've won a championship in LA and so I have a little advantage of understanding who he is on and off the floor. I will get to know Christie, watch tape on him. But it takes time. Chemistry, anytime you add or subtract, it takes time for that group to get to know each other. Continuity is a big thing, and we've seen this for the guys who've been with us this season.”

A Vision of the Future

Harrison considers Davis “one of the best two-way players in the league.”

“A lot of people don't talk about what AD does defensively and offensively, but First Team All-NBA players that are also First Team All-Defensive players, that's a unique unicorn to try to find, and we're able to find that,” Harrison said. “And as well, you look at Max Christie, he was [the Lakers] starting 2 guard, guarded all the top players in the league and he's young and athletic and bouncy and gets his hands on lots of balls.”

Speaking with Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News, Harrison indicated that pairing Davis with another big man is based on how the Cavaliers have constructed their team, similar to Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.

As far as Davis’ abdominal strain goes, Harrison said “it wasn’t significant,” and that the Mavs will learn more about it when the physicals are completed. That’ll give each party involved a better idea of when the traded players will join the teams they were moved to.

The Doncic-Davis trade was a deal that sent shockwaves across the basketball world.

Media, players, scouts, executives and fans couldn’t believe what had just happened. The Lakers had just finished a double-digit victory over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden only an hour prior to ESPN’s initial report.

We even heard from some people directly after games with later start times on Saturday. Stars across the league were on their personal accounts expressing disbelief. It was one of the nights on social media in sports that nobody would forget.

Unquestionably a risky bet, Harrison is putting his reputation on the line. There are trades that happen, and there are franchise-altering transactions. Kidd mentioned that Irving too was shocked by the news, but the Mavs coach said he couldn’t add much more until Kyrie speaks for himself.

This kind of gamble into the latter category, to which Mavericks’ fans are heartbroken and in disbelief.

“I'm sorry they're frustrated, but it's something that we believe in as an organization is going to make us better,” Harrison said.

“We believe that it sets us up to win, not only now but also in the future. And when we win, I believe the frustration will go away.”

It’s one of the wildest moments in NBA history, and certainly a trade that required gumption to make.

Whether Harrison hits the jackpot or rolls snake eyes is to be determined.

“I don't do anything that's scary,” Harrison said. “I think everything that we do, we put a lot of work into it, we study it, and we restudy it, and we go back - and I understand the magnitude of it. So the easiest thing for me to do is do nothing and everyone would praise me for doing nothing. But we really believe in it, and time will tell if I'm right. We really feel that they're adding into the culture that we're trying to create here, we feel that defense wins championships, and we're excited to go. We feel like we're built to win now as well as in the future.”