The Dallas Mavericks are expected to fire General Manager Nico Harrison during a meeting scheduled this morning with team governor Patrick Dumont, according to sources that spoke to ESPN. Harrison, who has served as the Mavs' GM since 2021, has been under a lot of scrutiny after he completed a trade last season that sent point guard Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis and other assets.

Last off-season, Nico Harrison was able to secure the number-one overall pick for the Mavs in the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery, which Dallas used to select Duke freshman phenom Cooper Flagg. As of this writing, Flagg is the Mavericks' second-best scorer (15.5 points per game), second-best passer (3.1 assists per game), and third-best rebounder (6.8 rebounds per game).

The Dallas Mavericks have gotten off to a slow start to open the 2025-26 regular season. With a 3-8 record, they have the fifth-lowest winning percentage in the NBA, ahead of only the Washington Wizards, Indiana Pacers, Brooklyn Nets, and New Orleans Pelicans.

Nico Harrison was named the Dallas Mavericks' general manager and president of basketball operations on June 28th, 2021, less than two weeks after the franchise mutually parted ways with former GM and president of basketball ops, Donnie Nelson. During Harrison's tenure as GM, the Mavs compiled a record of 182-157 and made the playoffs three times. Under his watch, the Mavericks reached the 2024 NBA Finals, where they lost to the Boston Celtics 4-1.

The Mavs made the right decision way too late.

It was apparent that Nico Harrison was not going to be the general manager of the Dallas Mavericks much longer. Ever since he traded away Luka Doncic, Mavs fans have been calling for his head, while the rest of the NBA world has mocked Dallas relentlessly. At the end of the day, it was the right choice to move on from Nico Harrison. Unfortunately, the damage has already been done in the "Big D."

Luka Doncic is gone. Retroactively firing Nico Harrison won't bring him back. This move does nothing but create more goodwill with the fans. Then again, that might be necessary after the now-fired GM mortgaged the team's future for a great NBA player who constantly deals with injuries. Just last night, Mavs fans were calling for Nico Harrison's dismissal. This decision will go a long way in restoring Dallas' faith in its basketball team.

Despite low expectations, there was some hope that the Mavericks would not only be competitive this season, but that this team would maybe even make the playoffs. After Dallas got off to a rocky 2-3 start, there was still some speculation that this squad would be able to turn things around. Instead, they lost five of their next six games and found themselves near the bottom of the Western Conference standings with a 3-8 record. The Mavs' ownership group needed to do something to show that they are going to hold members of the front office accountable, so they fired Nico Harrison in a move that was guaranteed to make fans happy.

This might've been what Dallas was planning to do all along. Maybe the Mavericks' owners knew that they were going to struggle this season despite high expectations, so they kept Nico Harrison with the plan of eventually using him as a scapegoat after the team got off to a poor start. Think about it: if Dallas had already fired Nico Harrison in the off-season, there would be nobody to blame for the Mavericks' 3-8 record. Now, they can pin all of the team's failures on Harrison, and then coast through the rest of the season while using the "We don't have a real GM" excuse to justify their terrible performance. When you think about the firing that way, you can understand why Dallas kept Harrison to start the season.

Regardless, Nico Harrison is gone, and the future of the Dallas Mavericks has been permanently altered. Instead of building around Luka Doncic, they'll have to hope and pray that Cooper Flagg will be the guy who can lead them to the promised land. If we're being honest, though, Flagg will be lucky if he becomes 75% of the player that Luka Doncic currently is.