The Dallas Mavericks have been in a downward spiral since their former general manager, Nico Harrison, decided to trade Luka Dončić for pennies on the dollar. Yes, the lottery gods threw them a pretty nice bone in the form of the first overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, which turned into the 2025-26 Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg. But before the Luka trade, the Mavs were fresh off a Finals berth — and now they’ve suffered back-to-back seasons without even sniffing the playoffs.

Harrison has since been dismissed, but the impact of his impulsive decision-making is still being felt by the people he left behind in Dallas — including his former head coach, Jason Kidd, who was let go on Tuesday by new team president Masai Ujiri.

Jason Kidd

The genesis for this post came from the news that the Mavericks and their head coach of five years, Jason Kidd, have mutually decided to part ways. Kidd is probably happy to move on from a team that looks to be in rebuild mode, but it didn’t always have to be this way. He and Dončić were able to lead the organization to two conference finals and one NBA Finals in their three-plus years together. They could have continued that winning for the next decade if not for Harrison.

It’s not like Kidd was doing a bad job with this diminished group, either. Despite the Mavericks boasting a bottom-four offense, he still found creative ways to call plays for them in out-of-timeout situations. Kidd is a good coach, and some other NBA team will be lucky to have him calling the shots.

Luka Dončić

Before getting injured, Dončić was playing some of the best basketball of his life for the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s not like he’s fallen off as a player. But it is pretty clear that the Slovenian superstar wanted to ride off into the sunset with the Mavericks; Los Angeles is an awesome place to be, but there is nothing like playing for the team that first believed in you. Unfortunately, Harrison’s aimless ambition ruined that dream for Dončić and Dallas fans.

Quentin Grimes

It seems like Harrison was experiencing some form of psychosis in the first week of February 2025. Not only is that when the dreaded Dončić trade occurred, but he also moved Quentin Grimes (and a second-round pick!) for Caleb Martin just because he was worried about paying the former in the offseason.

Martin hardly factored into the rotation this year for the Mavericks, only appearing in 58 games and posting an Estimated Plus-Minus (EPM) that ranked in the 18th percentile (per Dunks & Threes). Meanwhile, Grimes built upon a strong 2024-25 campaign with a season for the Philadelphia 76ers that saw him emerge as one of the best bench players in the league (ranking 12th in total bench points). Seems like a good depth piece to pair with Dončić, Nico!

Kyrie Irving

Kyrie Irving is the only person on this list who is still employed by the Mavericks. It’s hard not to feel for the guy: Just two years ago, the former All-NBA guard was competing for an NBA title; now, he is rehabbing a torn Achilles (which, to be fair, is not Harrison’s fault … we think) on a team that likely will not be in the title race next season barring some unprecedented leap by Flagg. That second part is 100 percent Harrison’s fault.

Irving has done a great job of cleaning up his off-court antics and being a true leader for this Mavericks team. What does he get in return? His generational backcourt running mate abruptly traded away, likely without his approval. And now, he’s all alone to deal with this monstrosity. Hopefully, for Irving’s sake, he is traded or the Mavericks figure things out under Ujiri.

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