Mark Cuban is where Nico Harrison is in the exact same place as a Dallas Mavericks fan after trading Luka Donsic.
Nico Harrison was able to do 1,000 things as GM for the Dallas Mavericks for the rest of his tenure. However, the fanbase rarely forgives him for swapping Luka Donsic.
Many believed that Nico Harrison would lose his job to trade Donsic. Especially after Nico’s plans backfired after Kyrie Irving suffered an ACL injury.
However, since then, the Mavericks have attacked Gold, landing the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and selecting Cooper Flag to become the next franchise star.
The Mavericks may have turned their fortune around, but many fans still residing on Nico to replace a once-generated franchise player with Don Sic.
However, Mark Cuban, former Mavs majority owner, opposed Harrison Trading Doncic, but he is still completely confident in GM. Also, I resonate with him considering he once made similar decisions.
Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban spoke to SiriusXM NBA Radio in an interview in the Summer League. In his comments, he marked Dallas Mavericks GM Nico Harrison with approval.
He disagreed with Nico’s decision to trade Luka Donsic, but he understands that decisions can be difficult. He referenced his own controversial decision to trade Steve Nash for the Phoenix Suns and how that made Mavericks fans turn him on.
“The deal is a deal. I let go of Steve Nash and the whole town hated my a** for a long time. He got two MVPSs and I didn’t get anything back for him, right?
“Not all decisions agree, but there are many more decisions to being a general manager.
“It’s much harder to try and get the team together and get the team together.”
Mark Cuban has further explained how Nico Harrison builds his team in the same way as the OKC Thunder. An annual increase in salary caps allows the Mavericks to build a roster through long-term extensions.
“You saw what OKC did. It’s clever. They’ve signed all those guys now.
“Well, they’re sort of positioned well now, because they know that the cap is lower the more they’re for a while, and they’re going to rise 10% a year, so they’re sort of well.
“Nico did the same. We have everyone except PJ (Washington) to extend the contract, so we’ll keep more and more space as those contracts are locked.”
Harrison wasn’t a popular figure among Mavericks fans, but he has done some powerful work over the past few weeks.
Extending Kyrie Irving with a lower salary was huge for the Mavericks. With Irving scheduled to return later in the 2025-26 NBA season, Anthony Davis and Cooper Flag are hoping that they will be able to keep their team competitive by the time he returns.
In doing so, Maverick will have a serious chance to compete in the NBA Championship next season.