Dallas Mavs GM Nico’s Promise: Luka Doncic ‘Will Win Titles’
This season, we’ve talked about how the Dallas Mavericks’ front office probably needs to raise its urgency level when it comes to making roster upgrades around generational talent Luka Doncic.
Mavs’ general manager Nico Harrison, who is still just six months into his new NBA executive job, might be turning up the urgency dial and getting closer to shaking things up with Dallas’ roster.
"When you got a guy like Luka, he’s going to win championships,” Harrison told The Undefeated’s Marc Spears. “So, hopefully, he wins them in Dallas and I’m a part of it."
The key word there is ‘hopefully.’ It signals that Harrison knows that Doncic staying in Dallas for the entirety of his career isn’t a given in today’s NBA climate, despite Doncic seeing firsthand all the flowers Dirk Nowitzki has received over the last couple of years. … And that could be a good thing for the Mavs’ team-building plans going forward.
Not only does Harrison want to help build a championship team with Doncic, but he also wants to do it for head coach Jason Kidd, who was hired with Harrison as somewhat of a package deal last summer.
"We’re friends," said Harrison of his relationship with Kidd.
"We can challenge each other. He has a different job than I have. He’s the coach and I’m trying to make his job easier. … Get him better players, get him players that fit what he likes and what he needs.”
Kidd, despite dealing with many roster injuries and NBA health and safety protocols absences, has already put his fingerprints on this Mavs team. At the start of the year, Kidd said he wanted the Mavs to become a better defensive team, and so far, Dallas owns the tenth-best defensive rating in the NBA.
Adding more athletic, good defensive players is likely what Kidd wants for this current Mavs roster, and it’s also how to best cater to Doncic’s needs.
Nico Harrison surely knows all of this, and he’s had time to do his roster-building homework in the first half of this season. We’ll see what solutions he ultimately comes up with as we get closer to the February 10 trade deadline.
