Luka Dealt to Lakers: Nico Harrison is a Basketball Terrorist

[KillerLeft]

The question was about any possible path to  Nico Rehab as the Dallas GM.  The point here is more about what might have been in Nico's head.  Perhaps he thought the Mavs backcourt would still be strong enough with Kyrie, Klay, Exum, Dinwiddie.  Perhaps he thought and Hardy and B. Will were ready to step up a level to do the offensive creation. Yes none of those players could be expected to replace Luka just as the Lakers couldn't reasonably expect to easily have someone step up into AD's spot on the front line.

I think for Harrison the thought process was simple:

1) He didn't think Luka would ever commit to doing the things needed to become leader of a championship team. He didn't think he'd ever get into elite shape, or commit to playing defense. He didn't think Luka was right to be standoffish in the areas of injury rehab or training and didn't think it was possible to make that "just leave me alone - the experts I trust will let you know when I'm ready to play" approach work within the team structure he (Harrison) wanted to foster and believes is essential to creating a title team. Maybe most importantly, he felt giving over that guaranteed super max contract this summer was likely to compound these issues, not lead to resolving them. 

2) He thought Davis was the best of a short list of the "right" type of guy he could get back for Luka (this is probably true - he wasn't getting one of the other 5 guys one can reasonably compare with Luka on a tier level) and didn't want to just sell Luka to the highest bidder and "start over." 

3) He believes that with Davis in and Luka out, his team is now BETTER positioned to make a championship run over the next couple of seasons, and is so sure of that belief that I don't think he minded not having a perfectly reshaped roster immediately following the trade. In other words, I don't think he was overly concerned with whether or not he got the exact, right package back to maximize THIS SEASON's potential, even, right or wrong. I think he truly just believed Davis in with Luka out put the roster in a stronger position moving forward into the summer. 

To answer Dan's original question, I think he has to be right about all 3 things to have any hope of escaping this saga as anything but a villain. I can certainly see how he arrived at point #1, but even if Luka's career flames out embarrassingly in LA (they're already pissed at his conditioning and defense out there, even before it's reasonable to have expected better, imho. That's the Laker fan experience), people will claim that "Luka could've gotten it done here in Dallas if given the next contract." So, only if Luka flames out AND the Mavs win a ring over the next 1-2 seasons will it even occur to anyone to let Harrison off of this hook, both locally and nationally. 

The chances of winning an NBA championship are always pretty low, even when things go right, so the much smarter play would've been to continue building around Luka until either A) he won or B) the NBA/Mavs fan community arrived organically at the idea that it wasn't going to happen here. 

I think the chances that Harrison makes it to the other side of this mess are slim to none.