The NBA offseason of 2025 was supposed to be a chapter of glorious rebirth for the Dallas Mavericks. After the earth-shattering February trade that sent franchise cornerstone Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers, GM Nico Harrison had convinced the world, and perhaps more importantly, himself, that defense was the new foundation of success. The narrative was polished and intoxicating: a front line anchored by a “healthy” Anthony Davis, the arrival of the generational prospect Cooper Flag via the Draft Lottery, and the eventual return of the veteran leadership of Kyrie Irving. Experts projected them as a sure-fire playoff team, a defensive juggernaut nobody would want to face. The buzz was deafening; the expectation, stratospheric.
But the reality of November has not just failed to meet those expectations; it has cratered them into a canyon of historic futility. Instead of a defensive wall and a playoff contender, the Mavericks have stumbled to a catastrophic 3-7 start, sitting second to last in the Western Conference. The optimism has evaporated, replaced by a sense of impending doom, and the primary question echoing throughout the league is not about Cooper Flag’s development or Kyrie Irving’s return, but a far more existential one: How much longer can Nico Harrison keep his job? The Mavericks are not just losing; they are undergoing the most spectacular, self-inflicted implosion of a franchise’s hopes in recent memory, and every success enjoyed by their former star in Los Angeles feels like a fresh, devastating wound.
The Trade that Created a Catastrophe
The foundation of this current crisis was laid on February 2nd, 2025, when the Mavericks shocked the basketball world by dealing the 25-year-old MVP candidate, Luka Dončić, to the Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis. The core philosophy driving the move, as articulated by Harrison, was straightforward: “Defense wins championships and we’re bringing in one of the best two-way players in the league.” The Mavericks, who had missed the playoffs the previous season, envisioned a hard-nosed, athletic team built around the size and versatility of Davis, Dereck Lively II, Daniel Gafford, and PJ Washington.
When the ping-pong balls bounced Dallas’s way in the NBA draft lottery, granting them the first overall pick despite having only a 1.8% chance, the narrative solidified. They selected Cooper Flag out of Duke, a forward lauded as the most complete prospect since LeBron James, a two-way star with a high basketball IQ. Flag was instantly installed as the runaway favorite for Rookie of the Year. The preseason seemed to confirm the hype, with Flag flashing his immense potential and the team going 3-1. The message from the front office was clear: the previous year was a transition; this year, with a generational rookie and a healthy Davis, they would be rolling into the playoffs.
The wheels have come off with a swiftness and severity that defies explanation, beginning, ironically, with the very factor the Mavericks sought to mitigate by trading Dončić: availability and conditioning.
The Historic Futility of the Worst Offense in NBA History
The most brutal indictment of the current Mavericks roster construction lies in a statistic that should haunt every decision-maker in the organization: the Mavericks currently own the worst offensive rating in NBA history. Not just this season, not just this decade, but in the entire recorded history of the league.
Through their first ten games, the Mavericks are averaging a meager 106 points per game, ranking them dead last, 30th in the league. Basketball Reference indicates the team has posted a relative offensive rating of negative 11.8. To put that figure into perspective, historical data shows that of the 19 teams to finish a season with a relative offensive rating of -7.5 or worse, none won more than 27 games. The Mavericks are an apocalyptic -11.8.
The team simply lacks consistent shooting, playmaking from the guard position, and an isolation scorer capable of creating his own shot. Key personnel acquired to fill specific roles have floundered. Klay Thompson, signed to be their floor spacer, has been struggling so badly that Coach Jason Kidd benched him against the Pelicans. Harrison’s mantra that “Defense wins championships” has been painfully exposed as a half-truth; you must also, fundamentally, be able to put the ball in the basket. The team has failed to score 100 points in half of their losses, including a humiliating defeat to a New Orleans Pelicans squad that was missing both Zion Williamson and Jordan Poole, two of its best offensive players. This isn’t a team struggling to execute; this is a roster fundamentally incapable of putting points on the board, a failure that sits squarely on the shoulders of the General Manager who prioritized defense at the expense of necessary offensive creators.
The Irony of the Injury Epidemic: The AD and Kyrie Mirage
The entire defensive cornerstone of the trade, Anthony Davis, has become the centerpiece of the most painful irony. The Mavericks traded away Dončić, in part, because of alleged concerns about his conditioning and availability. What they received in return is a revolving door of medical tents.
Davis, who was supposed to be the healthy two-way anchor, has already missed games with a calf strain and is dealing with bilateral Achilles tendinopathy. Worse, devastating reports surfaced that Davis showed up to training camp overweight, believing he could play his way into shape, a decision his injury-prone body could not handle. The man whose durability was supposed to be a significant upgrade over Dončić is now sidelined due to conditioning issues. Throughout his 13-year career, Davis has missed a staggering 244 games—the equivalent of three full seasons—having sustained 25 distinct injuries in just his first five seasons alone. The notion that he would be more durable than Dončić now seems delusional.
The injury woes do not end there. Secondary star and veteran leader Kyrie Irving is out until at least late December or early 2026, still recovering from an ACL tear suffered last season. Dereck Lively II is dealing with a mysterious, lingering injury that has him listed as week-to-week. The size and depth the Mavericks boasted about in the preseason have been decimated, and a startling statistic encapsulates the cruelty of this situation: Since the February trade, Luka Dončić has played in more games than Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, and Dereck Lively II combined. The Mavs traded away a player because of availability concerns and got back a roster that appears physically incapable of staying on the court.
The Mismanagement of a Generational Talent
Perhaps the most tragic aspect of the Mavericks’ disaster is the handling of Cooper Flag. Drafted as a generational talent and the most complete prospect since LeBron, Flag has been thrown into a situation that is actively stunting his development and breaking his spirit.
After a loss to New Orleans, Flag, a kid who went 33-0 at Montverde Academy and reached the Elite Eight at Duke, confessed that this was the most intense period of losing he had ever experienced. His struggle is not entirely his fault. With Kyrie Irving out and no reliable veteran point guard, Coach Jason Kidd made the baffling decision to start the 6-foot-9 forward at point guard for the first seven games of the season. Flag is a wing, a three or four player, yet he was handed the keys to the most demanding position in basketball, seemingly in the desperate hope that he could instantly become another Dončić.
Tim McMahon perfectly summed up the situation: “I’m not selling any Cooper Flag stock, but it’s a struggle for him. He has the second-worst plus/minus in the league. His shooting numbers are unsightly to say the least.” The rookie’s plus/minus currently sits at a devastating -69. Flag is averaging respectable rookie numbers (14.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists), but he’s shooting an inefficient 40.3% from the field and 29% from three.
As Mavs Moneyball wrote in a devastating piece, the franchise is “not doing right by Cooper Flag.” He landed in a franchise that “detonated its core” and instead of protecting him with spacing and ball-handling support, they “started him at point guard essentially handing an 18-year-old slasher the keys to a brick-heavy, sans-Kyrie offense with no navigation system.” When Kidd finally moved him to his natural position against New Orleans, Flag flourished, scoring 20 points, grabbing nine rebounds, and adding three steals and two blocks—only for the team to lose by two points. The damage is done, and a generational talent’s confidence and development have been sacrificed at the altar of a fundamentally flawed team-building strategy.
The LA Triumph: Luka’s Revenge Tour
As Dallas sinks into the league’s cellar, the Los Angeles Lakers are thriving. They sit at a sterling 7-3 record, occupying second place in the Western Conference, doing so even without LeBron James, who is working through a sciatica injury. The driving force behind their success is, without question, the man the Mavericks discarded.
Luka Dončić is playing the best basketball of his professional life. Through his first six games, he was averaging an astounding 37 points, 10 rebounds, and 9.5 assists—video game numbers. He became only the second player in NBA history, alongside Wilt Chamberlain, to score at least 43 points in his first three games of the season.
More than the gaudy offense, it is the improved defense that stings the most in Dallas. Dončić is playing engaged, elite defense, forcing turnovers and generating blocks at a career-high rate. Against the Spurs, his stat line of 35 points, 13 assists, nine rebounds, five steals, and two blocks made him the first Lakers player since 1973-74 to post 35-10-5-5 in a regular season game. The reaction of Lakers guard Marcus Smart, a former Defensive Player of the Year, was telling: a shout-out for Dončić for “DPI, baby, Defensive Player of the Year!” Let that sink in: the player Nico Harrison supposedly traded because of his defensive limitations is now earning Defensive Player of the Year shout-outs from one of the best defenders of his generation. The poetic irony is comedic.
The Lakers’ offense around Dončić is humming, scoring at a rate that would eclipse the league-leading Rockets offense when Dončić is on the floor. His presence has elevated Austin Reaves to a career year. The culmination of this irony was perhaps best captured by a viral tweet: “Fun fact: Luka has more blocks than the Dallas Mavericks have wins this season. Defense wins championships.” Every Luka highlight is a knife in the heart of Dallas fans, a stark reminder of what could have been had the organization been patient with their superstar.
The GM’s Clock is Ticking
The immediate fallout from this catastrophic start has settled squarely on the shoulders of General Manager Nico Harrison. According to ESPN’s Tim McMahon, the question of whether Harrison can keep his job is “absolutely a legitimate question,” and, crucially, it is the first question NBA executives, scouts, and media members are asking around the league.
This is the man who, back in April, when asked directly why he shouldn’t be fired following the trade, offered a stunning self-justification. “Why shouldn’t you be fired? One, I think I’ve done a really good job here and I don’t think I can be judged by the injuries this year and you’ll see next year when our team comes back we’re going to be competing for a championship.”
It is now November, the team is 3-7, second to last in the West, and fielding the worst offense in NBA history. Those comments are not just aging poorly; they are, as the video suggests, “aging like milk left out in the Texas Sun.”
The criticism is no longer confined to anonymous sources. Former majority owner Mark Cuban, now a minority stakeholder, publicly weighed in, saying he was “not thrilled with the composition of the team,” specifically pointing out the lack of depth at point guard and a creator who gets others shots. Even Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki, now an analyst, didn’t mince words, stating, “I feel bad for my Mavs fans. This has been a disastrous start… there’s a hole at shot-creating… it’s been tough to watch.” When the most beloved player in franchise history uses the word “disaster” to describe the team, it is a clarion call that the team’s organizational choices have failed.
While team governor Patrick Dumont reportedly still supports Harrison, that support is being tested with every loss. Dumont was the one who famously declared “In Nico we trust” following the trade. If he fires Harrison now, he is essentially admitting that the trade, and his unwavering trust, was a monumental mistake. That is a hard pill for ownership to swallow, but the pressure is mounting relentlessly.
The next four to six weeks are critical. Harrison has informal checkpoints approaching—the Thanksgiving window, mid-December when more players become trade eligible, and January when teams commit to being buyers or sellers. If Dallas is still floundering by then, the conversation will transition from speculative to imminent. Every move Harrison has made since the trade—including a four-year, $90 million extension for PJ Washington (who is shooting 28.1% from three) and giving D’Angelo Russell the taxpayer mid-level exception—is now being questioned.
The path forward hinges on improbable “ifs”: if Anthony Davis somehow stays healthy, if Kyrie Irving returns and is instantly an All-Star, and if Cooper Flag can quickly adjust to the chaos around him. That is a mountain of wishful thinking. Right now, the clock on Harrison’s tenure is ticking louder with each defeat, and with Luka Dončić thriving in Los Angeles while the Mavericks sink to the bottom of the standings, that clock may run out sooner than anyone in Dallas ever imagined. The Mavericks didn’t just trade a superstar; they traded away their identity, their optimism, and their immediate future, all for a spectacular organizational collapse that the NBA will study for years to come.
