EXCLUSIVE Mavs Donuts: Inside the KP Trade; Luka Getting Signature Shoe with Jordan
To put it mildly, it's been a busy couple of weeks for the Dallas Mavericks. Not only has the team won six of its last seven games going into the All-Star break, but the front office made a massive decision to trade Kristaps Porzingis to the Washington Wizards.
Mavs GM Nico Harrison took some time out of his busy schedule this week to sit down with Dalton Trigg on a special edition of our Mavs Step Back Podcast. During the interview, Harrison touches on why the front office ultimately decided it was time to move on from Porzingis, what the ideal 'second star' next to Luka Doncic looks like in his mind, why people shouldn't have been surprised with Jason Kidd's coaching success in Dallas and much more.
On this weekend edition of 'Mavs Donuts,' we breakdown all of Nico Harrison's interview answers quote-board style. Enjoy!
DONUT 1: WHY MAVS TRADED PORZINGIS
“That was the biggest thing we could take away from it, that we had a chance to turn one player into two and kind of fill some holes that we needed. That’s the reason why we did it. As you start going through the trade deadline, teams start calling and you’re having conversations back and forth. Then you start realizing, ‘hey we actually could make this happen.’ ... We were determined to make any move that we could make to help the roster, but what we didn’t want to do is actually just make a move for the sake of making a move. I think you can get trapped into that. We had our goals as we entered the week and what we wanted to get accomplished, and if we couldn’t have accomplished that, we wouldn’t have done anything."
DONUT 2: THE IDEAL SECOND STAR FOR LUKA?
“I don’t know that there’s an ideal player. I really think that if you have the opportunity to bring in another amazing player to play alongside Luka [Doncic], they could be any position. Great players figure it out. So I don’t think it has to be a forward or a center or another guard, I just think when you have that opportunity to bring somebody in at that top tier caliber, you let the players figure it out.”
DONUT 3: KIDD'S IMPACT ON GIANNIS AND MIDDLETON
“I think [Kidd] has had amazing growth. I also think that if you look at the Milwaukee team [he coached], they weren’t ready to win. They weren’t built to win and ready to win. But if you look at the development of the players that were on that team, you look at where they’re at now? [Atetokounmpo and Middleton] are All-Stars. [Kidd and his coaching staff] had a big deal in that. This is just human nature. As you have more experiences, you’re going to grow from it, and Jason definitely grew from it."
DONUT 4: LAKERS DON'T WIN IT ALL WITHOUT KIDD?
"The thing people don’t really put a lot of emphasis on is the job he did with the Lakers. The Lakers don’t win the [2020] championship without what he did. The way he’s able to communicate with superstars, the way he’s able to support the team. And the coach he worked for, it wasn’t about Jason. Jason was in a secondary role. He embraced the role, and he did everything he could do to support the head coach and support the players, but never grandstanding."
DONUT 5: MAVS GETTING 'BEST VERSION' OF KIDD NOW
"I think Jason learned a lot from his first two stops [in Brooklyn and Milwaukee]. I know he learned a lot, because we had long conversations about it. And I think what you saw in Jason in LA is more of a reflection of what you see with Jason here with us on the Mavs. … He’s a much better coach now than he was at his first stop, and I think he’s learned so much along the way at each stop that we’re getting the best version of him [now].”
DONUT 6: GORAN DRAGIC AND MAVS BUYOUT MARKET PLANS
“We knew that Goran [Dragic] would be a potential buyout candidate, and there’s other names out there too, but we’ve done our homework. We think we know who all is going to get bought out. But at the end of the day, we have 15 roster spots already filled, and for us to bring someone in, whoever that person could be, we’d have to release somebody, and I don’t think we want to do that. I think we like our roster how it is, and there’s no one that I would feel comfortable releasing at this point to add room for somebody else.”
DONUT 7: WHAT MAVS SAW IN DAVIS BERTANS AS TRADE TARGET
“[Bertans’] shooting ability, you don’t forget to shoot all of a sudden. You’re not an amazing career shooter and then all of a sudden you forget. So that let’s you know there’s something going on. It could be playing time, it could be injury, you just don’t know. But you’re confident that he can still shoot the ball. And we also know when you have an amazing point guard like Luka [Doncic], he finds open shooters. Then it’s just a matter of can you put the ball in the hole, and we knew [Bertans] could do that, so that gave us confidence in him.”
DONUT 8: WHAT MAVS SEE IN SPENCER DINWIDDIE AS TRADE TARGET
“When you start looking at playmakers, and guys who, from their careers, have been able to score and also make plays for other people, Spencer [Dinwiddie] is the perfect person for that.”
DONUT 9: MORE ON THE THINKING BEHIND DINWIDDIE AND BERTANS TRADE
"I don’t want to hype it too much too - but when a team’s not playing up to their capabilities, then you start seeing that the players aren’t playing up to their capabilities as well. It’s like hey, who’s a guy who maybe you value him more than his team does right now because they’re not winning. And then, can you put them on our team with J-Kidd and the players that we have surrounding them, and does that help them get back to the level that we expect them to play at? That’s kind of what we gambled in this case.”
DONUT 10: DOES KP TRADE OPEN OPPORTUNITY FOR BIGGER FUTURE TRADE?
“Absolutely. There’s no question. We’ve been saying it gives us depth and flexibility, and the flexibility comes in different ways. Not just with your roster, but with potential moves down the road.”
DONUT 11: SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NIKE JOB AND NBA GM JOB
“The beauty about my old job is that I had the relationships, whether it be with the GMs or the agents or the players. That kind of translated to what I’m doing now, but the difference is now you’re dealing with a finite amount of players, one team vs. a bunch of teams. And then there’s rules, so it’s not like you can just do whatever you want to do. Learning the rules, learning the nuances of the NBA, how it ebbs and flows, learning the CBA - that’s all been new. It’s been great, though. It’s been a great challenge to kind of soak all that in this first year.
“I know all the [other NBA] GMs, we just had a different relationship [when I was at Nike]. They might call me to ask about one of their players or a player they’re looking to draft, but now I’m competition to them, so when we talk, we’re not having those same conversations. They’re a little bit more reserved when they talk to me now.”
DONUT 12: LUKA DONCIC SIGNATURE SHOE IS COMING
“I can tell you this, they’re in the works with Jordan [on an official signature shoe]. It’s on its way. Stay tuned. [Luka] has earned it.”
