Mavs' Harrison has 'no regrets' after Luka trade

DALLAS -- Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison doubled down on his mantra of "defense wins championships," repeatedly using that saying as an explanation for his decision to trade Luka Doncic to the Lakers, a shocking blockbuster deal that outraged the Dallas fan base and has prompted frequent chants calling for Harrison's firing.

Harrison, along with new Mavs CEO Rick Welts, held an hourlong session Tuesday morning with a select group of Dallas-based media in which the trade of Doncic, 26, for a package headlined by 32-year-old perennial All-Star power forward Anthony Davis dominated the discussion.

"There's no regrets on the trade," said Harrison, whose only other media availability since the trade was a brief pregame session the following day in Cleveland. "Part of my job is to do the best thing for the Mavericks, not only today, but also in the future, and some of the decisions I'm going to make are going to be unpopular. That's my job, and I have to stand by it."

Harrison made the deal only months after Doncic led Dallas to the NBA Finals following a series of trades to construct a contender around the franchise player. Harrison referred to those deals -- including trades for Kyrie Irving, Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington -- when asked about Dallas fans' widespread desire for him to be fired.

"Well, the beauty of Dallas is it is a passionate fan base," Harrison said. "For us to reach our goals, we need that fan base. And to be honest with you, every trade I've made since I've been here has not been regarded as a good trade, and so sometimes it takes time. When I traded for Kyrie, it was met with a lot of skepticism and it was graded as a terrible trade and you didn't see it right away, but eventually everyone agreed that that was a great trade. When I traded for [Gafford] and [Washington] again, it was like, 'Oh, he gave up way too much. These guys aren't going to help us.' Now that trade, you saw the evidence a lot sooner. So I think a lot of times trades take a little bit of time.

"But our philosophy, like I said, going forward is defense wins championships and we're built on defense. And this trade cements us for that."

Did Harrison not believe that the core of last season's Finals team, with Doncic as the centerpiece, could contend for a title?

"I'll say this again: Defense wins championships," Harrison said.

The Mavs had the NBA's top-ranked defense for the final 20 games of last season. The Boston Celtics eliminated the Mavs in five games in the Finals, but defense wasn't Dallas' biggest problem in that series. The Mavs allowed 109.2 points per 100 possessions in the Finals, a defensive rating that would have ranked second in the league last regular season.

Harrison gave up control of the Mavs' first-round picks from 2027 through 2030 while making that series of successful trades, as well as the sign-and-trade deal for forward Grant Williams that didn't work out well. He has said that he believes he built a team for a "three- to four-year time frame" to contend with titles, although injuries ruined the Mavs' hopes this season.

"We believe in the move we made," Harrison said when asked how the logic of a time frame that ends as the team enters a stretch when it doesn't control its first-round picks is in the franchise's long-term best interests. "You obviously don't, and that's fine. You're entitled to your opinions, but we're excited. ... I think once we win, then that will change your mind."

Asked if he envisions himself continuing as the Mavs' GM beyond the time frame of three to four years, Harrison stated that he considers Dallas home and said, "I have three years left of my contract. I see myself finishing it out."

"I think once we win, then that will change your mind."

Mavericks GM Nico Harrison on those skeptical of Luka Doncic trade

Harrison said he hoped that the "vitriol would've subsided" due to the performance of the "championship-caliber team" that he constructed with Davis and All-Star guard Irving as the centerpiece. However, a series of injuries have derailed Dallas' season, as the Mavs limped to a 39-43 record to claim the Western Conference's final play-in berth.

The most significant of those injuries was a torn ACL suffered by Irving that will sideline him for an extended stretch to start next season. Davis, who was sidelined with an abdominal injury, suffered a related left adductor strain during his Mavericks debut on Feb. 8 and was sidelined for the next six weeks.

That 116-105 home win over the Houston Rockets -- when fans held a large pregame protest outside the American Airlines Center -- was the only time that Irving and Davis have played together for the Mavs. Davis had 26 points, 16 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 blocks in 31 minutes before suffering his injury.

"That's a championship-caliber team, and you guys were able to see it for 2½ quarters," Harrison said. "Unfortunately, it's a small sample size, but that is fairly a dominant defensive team. And as you look for us going forward, our philosophy is going to change. We're a team that's built on defense, we're built on versatility and depth. I think that's important going forward and that's going to be the blueprint to our success."

Mavs minority owner Mark Cuban, who lost control of basketball operations when he sold the majority share of the franchise to the Adelson and Dumont families last season, is among many who have criticized Harrison for not maximizing the return on a trade for a generational talent still approaching his prime.

Davis headlined a package from the Lakers that also included promising wing Max Christie and a 2029 first-round pick. Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka used the secretive nature of the discussions, which Harrison deemed necessary in part to prevent Doncic and his agent Bill Duffy from having any influence, as leverage in the trade talks.

"We targeted AD with our philosophy of defense wins championships," Harrison said. "We wanted a two-way player to lead our team and that was Anthony Davis. And so everybody's going to have their critics and I'm not sure what Mark said, but that's a better question left for him. But we got what we wanted."

Cuban was not consulted in the decision to trade Doncic, who had said that he planned to sign a five-year, $345 million supermax extension this summer to stay in Dallas long term. Neither was Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki, who has also publicly criticized the deal.

"First of all, nobody really knew about this trade," Harrison said. "It was very hush-hush, but you can't look for advice from people who aren't in the building at a constant basis. They're not going to understand what the team is going through day in and day out."

Variations of Doncic's No. 77 jerseys, including editions from the Mavs, Lakers and the Slovenian national team, continue to far outnumber all other jerseys combined during Dallas' home games.

That was especially true when Doncic made his return with the Lakers on April 9, when tears flowed down his face during a pregame tribute video before he scorched the Mavs for 45 points during Los Angeles' 112-97 win. That night was bookended by standing ovations for Doncic from the sellout crowd, which frequently chanted "Fire Nico!" throughout the game.

Welts, however, cited a season-ticket renewal rate between 75% and 80% as evidence that the fan base remains enthusiastic about the Mavs.

"That doesn't mean that there's a segment of our fan base that doesn't feel alienated right now, and I think that we hear them," Welts said. "And it's on us to win back that trust. I'm very confident that's exactly what we're going to do by the way we conduct ourselves on and off the court every day going forward.

"One thing that's been amazing for me, I think in my 47 years [in the NBA], I've never seen a more passionate fan base than this for any team in any sport. In my kind of glass-half-full way of looking at the world, I think that's a real positive, because I do think that gives us a wonderful chance to win back those fans who aren't sure about the Mavericks right now. But we're going to make that happen."