Nico Harrison had a publicly televised press conference on Monday one week after conducting a limited roundtable with select media members last week. The Dallas Mavericks were eliminated from postseason contention on Friday by the Memphis Grizzlies.
Harrison continues to receive widespread criticism for his decision to trade away Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. Harrison believes if the core of Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, Dereck Lively and PJ Washington would have been healthy, the Mavericks would have won down the stretch and the discontent over the trade would have been more muted.
“I did know Luka was important to the Mavs’ fanbase,” said Harrison. “I didn’t quite know to what level. But, really, the way we looked at it is if you’re putting a team on the floor that’s Kyrie, Klay, PJ, Anthony Davis and Lively, we felt that’s a championship caliber team. And we would have been winning at a high level. That would have quieted some of the outrage. So unfortunately we weren’t able to do that, so it just went on and on.”
Harrison continues to believe in his vision that “defense wins championships” and that the roster built around Davis and Irving will bounce back next season.
“I believe winning will help repair the relationship with the fans,” said Harrison. “That’s what we plan to do next year.”