With the Dallas Mavericks returning to their first NBA Finals since 2011 on Thursday, new team controlling owner Miriam Adelson and governor Patrick Dumont reportedly signed third-year general manager Nico Harrison to a contract extension, mere weeks after inking third-year head coach Jason Kidd, a Harrison hire, to a multiyear deal of his own.
How did Dallas' relatively new general manager return the club to the promised land after years of mismanagement?
Harrison first took over in June 2021, after the Mavericks fired now-former general manager Donnie Nelson following years of botched superstar free agent recruitments and middling first-round playoff exits. Nelson responded with a wrongful termination lawsuit in 2022. It's set to go to trial in December of this year, according to Xuan Thai of ESPN. Nelson stewarded the club to its 2011 NBA championship with Hall of Fame power forward Dirk Nowitzki leading the way on the court and Rick Carlisle coaching.
The Mavericks underwent a massive reconfiguration almost instantly with Harrison at the helm. First, the team inked All-NBA superstar guard Luka Dončić to a five-season, maximum-salaried contract extension in Aug. 2021 worth $215,159,700. It will keep him under Dallas control through at least 2025-26. The 6-foot-7 All-Star playmaker will have a player option worth an estimated $49 million for 2026-27, when he'll be just 27 and presumably still in the heart of his prime.
Kidd, the starting point guard on that 2011 title-winning Mavericks team, was hired as Dallas' new head coach at the same time as Harrison was brought on.
In terms of other deals made that summer for players still on this 2024 team, Harrison re-signed swingman Tim Hardaway Jr. to a four-year, $75 million free agent deal via their Bird rights. Among since-departed players inked to Dallas' standard roster, Harrison also brought on swingman Reggie Bullock, deep-bench center Boban Marjanović, wing Sterlin Brown, and guard Frank Ntilikina.
Harrison's most meaningful transaction that year, however, was offloading the contract of now-Boston Celtics opponent Kristaps Porziņģis. The oft-injured, pricey center was flipped to the Washington Wizards along with a 2022 second-round pick (which later became Yannick Nzosa) in exchange for combo guard Spencer Dinwiddie and the contract of stretch four Davis Bertans.
Dinwiddie became an imperative part of the Mavericks' push toward a 52-30 record and the Western Conference's No. 4 seed. The club then sprinted all the way through to the Western Conference Finals, behind the stellar three-guard attack of Dončić, Jalen Brunson and Dinwiddie. The absence of Porziņģis freed up the team's offense to more freely flow through its versatile backcourt, and also gave Harrison far more flexibility to make future moves.
In the subsequent 2022 NBA Draft, Harrison selected Wendell Moore Jr. with the No. 26 pick in the first round of the draft and, more importantly, found a diamond in the rough by trading for the draft rights to Jaden Hardy. The next day, Harrison flipped Brown, Maranovic, Trey Burke, Marquese Chriss, and the just-drafted Moore to the Houston Rockets for sharpshooting center Christian Wood.
His other moves that offseason aren't particularly worth relitigating. They ultimately sent the Mavericks into a spiral for 2022-23. Dallas let its second-best player, Brunson — whose star was clearly on the rise — depart as a free agent for the New York Knicks, where he instantly blossomed into a star. This was a horrific mistake.
By the trade deadline, however, Harrison was back to his transactionally winning ways. He somehow stole All-Star Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving for the low, low price of Dinwiddie, forward Dorian Finney-Smith, an unprotected 2029 first round selection and second rounders in 2027 and '29. Finney-Smith's perimeter defense was sorely missed, and the team stumbled towards the finish line. Dallas, needing to keep its top-10 protected lottery pick that summer, not-so-sneakily tanked in the final week of the regular season, finishing as the West's No. 11 seed with a 38-44 record.
The Mavericks did manage to preserve their lottery pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, which landed at No. 10. They used it on Kentucky shooting guard Cason Wallace, and flipped him and Bertans' contract on draft night to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for the draft rights to 7-foot-1 Duke center Dereck Lively II, whom the Thunder grabbed with the No. 12 pick. Lively made a surprisingly instant impact for the Mavs, as a rim-rolling center and athletic lob threat with tremendous upside.
Harrison made a variety of big deals that summer. In a three-team trade, he flipped Bullock and a 2030 first to the San Antonio Spurs and second rounders in 2025 and 2030 to the Celtics.
In return, he acquired power forward Grant Williams from the Boston Celtics, and obtained 2025 and 2028 Spurs second-rounders. He re-signed Irving to a lucrative three-year, $120 million free agent ideal and retained big man Dwight Powell. He also added Dante Exum, who had been playing internationally for the past two seasons, as a free agent, while also signing sharpshooting guard Seth Curry and trading cash to acquire big men Richaun Holmes and Olivier-Maxence Prosper from the Sacramento Kings.
Harrison signed unheralded pogo-stick forward Derrick Jones Jr., a former Slam Dunk Contest champ, to a one-year, veteran's minimum deal. Jones quickly stole Hardaway's starting small forward gig, thanks to his development of a jumper and defensive acumen. Jones is connecting on a positively competent 34.3 percent of his 3.1 three-point tries per game — career-bests in shooting rates and attempts.
Dallas got off to a middling start. By the trade deadline, the Mavericks were merely the West's No. 8 seed. This is when Harrison pulled off his masterpiece. He shipped Holmes and a 2024 first-rounder to the Washington Wizards in exchange for now-starting center Daniel Gafford, like Lively a two-way rim roller and optimal lob target.
He then flipped Curry and Williams, neither of whom had worked out, along with a 2027 first rounder to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for now-starting power forward P.J. Washington and two 2024 second-round draft selections, plus a trade exception.
Thus, since Feb. 2023, Harrison has completely changed out the four starters around Dončić, adding one of the game's elite playmakers and clutch scorers in Irving, a far better wing defender on a steal of a deal in Jones, the 2024 Robert Horry in Washington, and a far more deferential center in Gafford, with the 20-year-old Lively waiting in the wings to eventually take over in a year or two.
Harrison's abilities to identify underappreciated talent in free agency, drafts and trades, and to win deals consistently, have helped him construct two pretty different Mavericks clubs that both made the Western Conference Finals in two of the last three seasons, including this Finals-bound squad. He certainly earned that extension.
Uncommon Knowledge
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