Who's Really to Blame for Dallas Mavericks Missing 2025 NBA Playoffs?
Less than a year after appearing in the 2024 NBA Finals with a 25-year-old offensive supernova by the name of Luka Dončić, the Dallas Mavericks's hopes of a 3035 run ended short of the playoffs on Friday.
In a road play-in game, just over two months after general manager Nico Harrison and team governor Patrick Dumont's disastrous Luka trade, the Mavs were blown out, 120-106.
The contest ended with ESPN repeatedly cutting to the men in charge of this team, Memphis' game-ops crew playing "Whoop That Trick" and Dončić's replacement, Anthony Davis, limping up and down the floor.
Somehow, it all felt like an appropriate ending to a season that was completely and intentionally unraveled with what remains the most incomprehensible trade we've ever seen.
The authors of that move are undoubtedly among those most responsible for the season ending in collapse, but they're not the only ones.
We slice up the blame pie below.
5. Anthony Davis
1 of 5
You might not think this is fair to Davis, who was dealing with injuries his entire time in Dallas and undoubtedly struggling with being on the wrong side of perhaps the most lopsided trade ever, but he's now the face of this franchise.
And if you're looking for a reason the Mavs went 13-20 with a minus-7.4 net rating after the Luka trade, Davis and the fact that he only played in nine regular-season games are certainly one.
And while there's certainly a chance he comes back healthy and keeps Dallas afloat until Kyrie's return (he's optimistically targeting January), we also don't have a ton of evidence to support that.
Davis' most successful seasons, at least in terms of team success were those in which he was a No. 2 option alongside LeBron James. During his seven seasons with the New Orleans Pelicans, they were 21st in the league in winning percentage.
This isn't to say AD can't be the unquestioned alpha on a winning team. We just haven't seen it much yet (only two of those Pelicans teams had winning records).
4. Injuries
2 of 5
In Harrison and Dumont's defense—and this is really the only one there is—Dallas was absolutely wrecked by injuries immediately after the Luka trade.
Now, you might think that was the wrath of the basketball gods for trading an all-time great before he was even in his prime, but they wouldn't do that to Kyrie Irving.
No, this was just terrible luck, at least on the Kyrie front.
Over his first 10 games after Luka was dealt, Kyrie averaged 28.1 points, 4.1 assists and 2.9 threes. But he suffered a season-ending torn ACL on March 3 that may have been the death blow to the season.
Yes, there was over a month of games left on the schedule, but without Kyrie (and of course, Luka) there just wasn't enough firepower on this team to make a real run at a playoff spot in the loaded West.
And he wasn't the only Maverick who missed time after the trade. P.J. Washington, Dereck Lively, Daniel Gafford, Dante Exum and Caleb Martin (who came over in another bad trade that sent Quentin Grimes to the Philadelphia 76ers) all missed significant time.
There was even buzz about the team potentially forfeiting some games due to a lack of available players (though that never happened).
Of course, AD missed most of the last 31 games, too, but it's hard to let Harrison and Dumont off the hook for that. He was acquired with an adductor strain. His lack of durability has been a running storyline throughout his career.
Trading for Davis is trading for an injury risk.
So, yes. The theoretical starting five with Irving, Naji Marshall, Washington, AD and either Gafford or Lively may have been pretty good, particularly on the defensive end.
It's a shame injuries robbed us of the chance to see that group for more than a half of basketball, but we were never likely to see a ton of it.
3. Patrick Dumont
3 of 5
Prior to assuming his role as Dallas' team governor, Patrick Dumont had no experience in professional sports. And that could give him a pretty easy out when he eventually has to explain why this era of Mavericks basketball imploded.
But he had to ultimately sign off on the Luka deal. And during the process of acquiring this franchise from Mark Cuban, even the faintest bit of research on the asset would've revealed to Dumont just how important Luka was to the franchise and the city.
Yes, he trusted his "basketball people" to make basketball moves, but he should've known this was bad. Or, he should've at least consulted with more people who could've explained just how bad the deal was.
Even that might be letting him off the hook, though. This might all lead back to Dumont not wanting to invest in Luka in the form of a supermax contract.
And if that's the case, this is probably an unforgivable offense in the eyes of Mavs fans.
.png?w=256)
2. Mark Cuban
4 of 5
Mark Cuban revolutionized professional sports ownership. His passion and fandom for his team was infectious and helped turn the Mavericks into one of the most successful and consistent organizations in the NBA for decades.
He also wasn't with the team at the time the Luka deal was made. So, you may be wondering why he's even here.
Well, from a purely technical standpoint, there's simply no way this deal would've happened without a couple decisions from Cuban that set the stage.
First, he hired Harrison as the team's general manager in 2021, when Harrison was a Nike executive known by many outside the shoe business for failing to land Stephen Curry (who obviously signed with Under Armour).
Then, in 2023, he sold the franchise to the Adelson and Dumont families. They, of course, ultimately greenlit the deal that turned Dallas' 2024-25 around (for the worse), torpedoed its future and cost the organization dozens of millions in revenue this season alone.
1. Nico Harrison
5 of 5
Barring injuries, Luka is a perennial MVP candidate and All-NBA lock.
He'd just carried the Mavericks to the NBA Finals in 2024, two years after taking another overachieving team to the conference finals in 2022.
Even this season, Dallas was plus-11.2 points per 100 possessions with an 85th percentile defense when Dončić was on the floor with Kyrie Irving. Before the trade, despite dealing with an injury to Luka, the team had a top 10 net rating.
Then, for some reason that has yet to be satisfactorily explained, Harrison decided to trade in one of the brightest futures in the league for, at best, a one- or two-year window to compete for top-four finishes in the West.
Not titles, as Harrison would have you believe. Perennial contention for those often takes an offensive engine like Luka. The team Harrison assembled doesn't really have one, even with Irving healthy.
He and AD are both better suited as high-high-end No. 2s. And they're both injury prone and already in their 30s.
No matter how many times Harrison repeats the old cliche "defense wins championships," the facts of this situation won't change.
His team had one of the greatest and most positively impactful players of all time. He wanted to be a Maverick for his entire career (as he reiterated in an interview with ESPN on Friday).
And Harrison decided to trade him for a post-prime AD, Max Christie and one first-round pick.
Nothing that happened from there, including Dallas missing the playoffs, was surprising.
.png?w=480)
