This unthinkable NBA trade blew up worse than imagined. So, what’s next?

“Time will tell if I’m right.”

Dallas general manager Nico Harrison last February after trading Luka Doncic to the LA Lakers.

284 days later time told. Harrison was fired in a concession from the Mavericks they made a monumental mistake.

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Imagine if you went in a time machine nine months into the future after the Doncic trade.

Doncic has led the Lakers to an 8-3 record and top four seed in the West, despite the absence of LeBron James, in an MVP caliber season.

Injury has forced Anthony Davis on the sidelines yet again and the struggling Mavericks are 3-8.

Harrison is gone after being drowned in ‘Fire Nico’ chants at Dallas games in a protest from irate fans.

Lakers counterpart Rob Pelinka is (probably) smirking to himself somewhere and occasionally has to pinch himself and think: ‘Wait, how did I pull this off again?’

Yep, all that happened …

Could it possibly be playing out any worse for the Mavericks? And conversely, any better for the Lakers? Yet at the same time, could it have been any more predictable?

The most unthinkable, shocking and inconceivable trade in NBA history didn’t make sense at the time. And it will never, ever make sense.

It’s still impossible to get your head around.

It was, and remains, the most stupefying and mind boggling gamble imaginable from Dallas. And the biggest fall-in-your-lap jackpot for LA and free ticket to a successful run post James.

It’s hard to articulate just how catastrophic it’s been for the Mavericks.

Doncic is a generational superstar still entering his prime, already a five-time All-NBA First Team representative and five-time All-Star.

He took the Mavericks to the NBA Finals some eight months before the trade. Eight months! The NBA Finals!

And already reached cult hero/legend status for the franchise before turning 26 and set to be its greatest ever player.

They struck gold in drafting this guy who wanted to play his entire career at Dallas.

He was adored by fans like a member of their family. You sense there’s a few pets named Luka throughout Texas.

And yet …

The Slovenian superstar was moved in the middle of the night, without even being shopped around, after private trade discussions with just one team.

Had Doncic been put on the market, it would’ve yielded some sort of all-time haul.

Imagine selling top five real estate in the world privately for way unders …

Consider that the likes of Desmond Bane, Mikal Bridges and Rudy Gobert commanded mega hauls of multiple first-round picks in trades in recent years.

The return for Doncic? Davis, Max Christie and a first-round pick … that was it.

Clearly, Davis alone was worth a few first-round picks. But to make an injury-prone 30-plus year old the centrepiece of the package was foolish in its own right. And Davis’ value is only going in the wrong direction.

The aftermath of the trade has been a dark cloud hanging over Dallas ever since.

“Fire Nico! Fire Nico! Fire Nico!,” — the all-too-painfully-familiar chants have reverberated around a toxic American Airlines Center along with similarly derogatory signs.

The dismissal of the man responsible for the deal will help clear that dark cloud, to an extent, but it’ll continue to haunt the team and city for some time.

At least, so long as Doncic is wearing the purple and gold … and whatever he achieves there.

But does it even matter at this point whether Doncic wins a title at the Lakers? Given the collateral damage and way it’s completely and utterly alienated the Mavs fan base.

As ridiculous as this sounds, would Dallas winning a championship even earn the forgiveness and joy back for some Doncic diehards?

That’s just the optics and emotion of it all. From a sheer basketball perspective, it looks to have set Dallas a ways back.

Meanwhile the Lakers will be in the championship picture for every remaining year of Doncic’s prime.

Granted, the Mavericks have been hit with injuries to their best two players. Davis is currently sidelined with a calf issue and Kyrie Irving was brutally struck down with an ACL injury.

But Dallas knew what it was getting itself into when it pot committed to two injury prone players, Davis specifically, in their 30s.

And sure, you can blame injuries for anything. But at some point history is what history is. At this stage, it’s not on Dallas’ side in a turn of events that’s actually shattering for fans, in a sporting sense.

There were, in essence, two big problems with the Doncic trade (beyond shipping him out in the first place).

One, the Mavs purely and simply didn’t get enough back in the deal for one of the most valuable assets in NBA history.

The package had to absolutely blow them away to the point that they couldn’t say no. Not Davis, Christie and a first-round pick.

It’s fine that the team, as it preached, wanted to beef up its defence and bring in elite players on that side of the ball.

Harrison emphasised that “defence wins championships” after acquiring Davis, who was targeted to encapsulate that new identity.

But the return still could’ve – and should’ve – included a wider assortment of draft picks for the Mavs to hang their hat on over the next few years. In addition to bringing in a star level player – or star defender, if that was the priority.

Speaking of, Austin Reaves just had to be part of the deal.

Harrison had to say: ‘Put Reaves in the trade or no deal’.

Again, this is if they were convinced they had to trade Doncic for lord knows what reason.

Even if you added Reaves to the package they got, it would’ve been unders. And that’s with the Lakers guard elevating his game to become a genuine top-line star. He’s averaged 30.3 points, five rebounds, nine assists, 2.9 threes and 1.5 steals per game so far in a career-best season as Doncic’s star sidekick with James injured.

Doncic and Reaves shape as the Lakers’ new long-term star duo.

So much so that if Dallas wanted Reaves in a straight swap for Davis now, LA would say no.

The other hitch is that the Mavericks banked on the health of Davis, one of the most injury prone players in the NBA.

There’s absolutely no denying the 10-time All-Star and Lakers championship big’s abilities. He’s just not on the court enough.

In fact, the 32-year old has played in just 16 of a possible 43 games for Dallas — or 37 per cent of games. And he’s played over 60 games just once in the last seven seasons, plus big men’s bodies historically don’t age well in the NBA.

Dallas basically sold remarkably low on Doncic and bought unnecessarily high on Davis.

Basketball aside, Harrison and the Mavericks ultimately underestimated the level of rage and disharmony of fans sending out a franchise cornerstone would create.

Sport is about more than just winning titles. It’s about fanfare and general love and passion.

Players like Doncic come around once in a blue moon, and many Mavs fans would’ve attended or watched games for ‘Luka Magic’ alone.

Take that away and you break the hearts of people and trigger a wave of devastation, disharmony and vitriol. One Dallas figureheads didn’t see coming.

Not to mention the way it’s clearly lit a fire under a motivated and trimmed-down Doncic, who’s at the absolute peak of his powers and playing as well as anyone in the league.

He’s averaged 37.1 points, 9.4 rebounds and 9.1 assists per game through the Lakers’ strong start to the season to sit firmly in the MVP conversation. Case in point.

And this all comes with the backdrop of the Mavericks lucking out extraordinarily by landing No. 1 daft pick Cooper Flagg with 1.8 per cent odds — the fourth-largest underdog to win the lottery since it was first introduced in 1985.

Which, basically gave Harrison an out. A team that went all-in on win-now mode with this defence heavy line-up also had a future cornerstone locked away.

Even if the post-Doncic Mavs failed, they were going to be just fine long term. They had their cake and ate it too, as tricky as having two timelines can be.

But not even Flagg, yet to really hit his straps in an uncustomary point guard role, could salvage the wreckage that is the aftermath of the Doncic trade. At least, not yet.

Or lift the vibes and help mend a fractured fan base and franchise at large.

The fact that Flagg couldn’t dilute some of that negativity speaks volumes on how bad it’s gotten. And perhaps even a couple more wins wouldn’t change that.

Granted, Flagg is only 18 years old. So carrying a team while it’s other stars are injured is a big ask right now, as talented as he is.

Imagine if they didn’t land the prodigy, as was a 98.2 per cent chance …

So what’s next for Dallas and whoever takes over as its new general manager?

Davis’ future has to come into the spotlight and the possibility of exploring his trade market. That wouldn’t have been the case with Harrison running the show.

But already the roster is imbalanced with a surplus of bigs, hence Flagg sliding down to the one with Irving sidelined.

So unless this team can drastically turn things around and become the contender Harrison envisioned, building around Flagg should be the bigger picture priority.

Trading Davis — owed $175 million (AUD $268 million) over the next three seasons — while he has value, even if it’s diminished, makes some sense. But don’t expect to attach a pick and role player and get a Doncic-esque level star in return …

Irving and others could also be on the trade block. Wipe your hands clean of whatever it is they tried to build and move on with Flagg as your No. 1 guy.

Crucially, Dallas owns its 2026 first-round draft pick, but loses control over all its other first rounders for the rest of the decade.

Those picks were all moved to build a contender around Doncic …

It makes a traditional rebuild harder to justify, unless they can get some of their picks back. But building around Flagg doesn’t necessarily need to mean completely pushing the reset button and bottoming out. For they’ve already got their franchise superstar.

Hard to say what the alternative plan would be, if this isn’t the contender it was hoped to be.

One thing’s clear. Whatever the plan was under Harrison has been scrunched up and thrown out.

There was something poetic about Doncic pouring in 38 points and continuing LA’s strong start to the season on the same day the Davis-less Mavs’ slump rolled on. Despite Flagg’s career-best 26-point performance.

It felt like the breaking point for a franchise and final nail in the coffin for Harrison after a tumultuous nine months and trade that backfired spectacularly.

As for Lakers fans, they might be chanting ‘Thank you Nico!’ if No. 77 helps them raise more banners.