From Bane to Green, Grimes to Martin, and (gulp) Luka to Davis, Dallas is perfecting the art of asset decay.
He’s Here in DFW Now — But He Won’t Be for Long
That’s what we said back in 2020.
Only we weren’t talking about Nico Harrison.
We were talking about Desmond Bane.
He was hiding in plain sight, right under our collective nose. A microwave scorer out of TCU, built like a tank with a silky jumper. No need for cross-country scouting trips. He was playing just down the road in Fort Worth, lighting up Big 12 defenses and checking every character box you want in a long-term NBA rotation piece. Disciplined, reliable, confident. And yes, he had short arms—but he also had a long future.
And yet, when the Mavericks were on the clock with the 18th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, they passed on Bane. They passed on Tyrese Maxey, too. And Immanuel Quickley. And Jaden McDaniels. They took Josh Green instead—a raw but athletic defensive wing out of Arizona with offensive limitations that have barely evolved since.
It was a mistake. At the time, some fans tried to justify it. The Mavs needed defense. Bane wasn’t long enough. Maxey was a Kentucky blur but hadn’t proven he could shoot. Hindsight is easy, right?
Sure. But only if the mistakes stop there. They didn’t.
A Pattern of Asset Decay
Josh Green developed slowly. He eventually became a rotation piece and played a role in the Mavs’ 2024 Finals run. But five years after drafting him, he was flipped to Charlotte in a six-team trade that brought Klay Thompson to Dallas.
Around the same time, Dallas traded Tim Hardaway Jr. and three second-round picks to Detroit in exchange for Quentin Grimes. While the deals were unrelated, the functional impact was clear: Grimes replaced Green in the rotation.
Grimes, in turn, was traded half a season later for Caleb Martin, a 28-year-old wing who spent the end of the year injured and underwhelming. In Dallas, Martin averaged 7.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game while shooting just 42.4% from the field—and failed to score a single point in two critical Play-In games.
Meanwhile, Grimes exploded in Philadelphia. In the final two months of the regular season, he averaged 22.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 5.7 assists per game in April, and 26.6 points per game in March, including a 46-point outburst against Houston. With Embiid sidelined and Maxey in and out of the lineup, Grimes shouldered the offensive load—and showed exactly what Dallas could have had, if they’d simply believed.
The Grimes-for-Martin swap was part of a larger pattern of asset fumbling that predates the Harrison regime, yet has only been continued by a brain trust that continually coats their hands in Land O’ Lakes’ finest butter.
What began as a promising era in 2018—drafting Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson on the same night—has now left the organization with little to show for it. And what followed in 2020, a missed opportunity to draft Desmond Bane or Tyrese Maxey, began a game of musical chairs that left Dallas holding the least impactful asset of the sequence. This wasn’t a lateral move. It was value evaporation.
Desmond Bane, passed over at No. 18 in favor of Green, has quietly become one of the most consistent and efficient wings in the league. He averages 19.2 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 5.3 assists, shoots 48.4% from the field, and owns a career 41% three-point percentage.
Jalen Brunson, drafted 33rd overall in 2018, developed into a 27-point-per-game star and the beating heart of a surging Knicks team. His departure wasn’t the result of a cap crunch or an inevitable exit—it was a failure of belief. The Mavericks had multiple chances to lock Brunson into a manageable extension. He later confirmed that he was open to staying, saying, “We tried to extend our contract … I wanted to stay there,” and even came back midseason ready to sign again: “If the deal’s there, we’ll do it right now.” Dallas declined. By the time Brunson carried them through the first round—dropping 41 and 31 in Luka’s absence—he’d proven too much to the open market, and the Mavs’ post-season outreach landed with a thud. “We didn’t hear from them,” Brunson said. “Crickets.”
These are two elite guards: one the Mavericks had in-house and let walk for nothing, the other just down the road on draft night, passed over in favor of a lesser option. Different mistakes. Same blind spot.
Enter Nico Harrison
To be clear, Nico Harrison did not draft Josh Green in 2020, and he wasn’t responsible for the structural error that led Jalen Brunson to hit unrestricted free agency in 2022. That mistake dates back to 2018, when Dallas signed Brunson to a four-year deal instead of the standard three-year rookie contract, forfeiting the right to match any offer when the time came.
But Harrison was at the helm during the window when Brunson could have been extended. According to Brunson himself, he was willing to sign a very manageable deal—reportedly in the neighborhood of three years, $55 million. The Mavericks declined. They let the season play out. And Brunson played himself into a $100+ million contract with the Knicks, leaving Dallas with nothing.
That loss reverberated. It partly necessitated the trade for Kyrie Irving. It further exposed the front office’s failure to evaluate its own talent. And it turned what should have been a historic 2018 draft class — Doncic and Brunson on the same night — into a long-term regret. Two Hall of Fame talents, drafted hours apart, and now neither is on the roster. For Brunson, nothing. For Luka, Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a single future first-round pick.
What was once a miracle haul on draft night in 2018 has mostly been bled dry.
Harrison’s struggles as an evaluator become even more glaring in the absence of experienced counsel. From April 2023 through June 2024, former Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey was on staff as a senior advisor. Under his watch, Dallas made several smart moves—drafting Dereck Lively II, and trading for Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington among them. But after Lindsey departed for a front office role with Detroit, the old habits returned.
Grimes-for-Martin. The Luka trade. The Anthony Davis era begins.
A False Choice: Build or Blow It Up
Here’s the thing: with Luka Doncic, Dereck Lively II, and a Finals appearance under your belt, the logical move would be to refine, not rebuild. Add smart pieces. Develop continuity. Take another shot next year.
Instead, the Mavs interpreted their Finals appearance as a closing window rather than an opening one. That rationale—we need to win now before Kyrie ages out—was used to justify trading Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis, an aging, injury-prone star whose best years are already logged.
You don’t build around 30-somethings. You bet on them. And Dallas just shoved all its chips into a pot led by Kyrie and AD, hoping for one clean year of health, chemistry, and playoff magic.
That’s not a three-year window. That’s a prayer.
Meanwhile, in Memphis
When Memphis traded Desmond Bane to Orlando, they got four unprotected first-round picks, plus Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Cole Anthony in return. That’s the market for a 26-year-old shooting guard with elite shooting splits and physical toughness.
And then fans looked back at what Dallas got for Luka Doncic: Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a single 2029 first-round pick. Reports suggest an earlier offer from the Lakers also included Dalton Knecht and an additional first-rounder—a richer deal that Dallas declined.
Social media lit up. “Fire Nico” trended again.
Why? Because the disparity is obvious. Bane’s return package looks really good. One could argue that it outshines the Luka haul; only Anthony Davis is a Hall of Famer in his own right. The righteous indignation here is reasonable since Doncic should’ve fetched more than Davis, Max Christie, and a pick. A lot more.
If you draft this poorly, if you let Quentin Grimes walk rather than pay him in restricted free agency, if you downgrade from Bane to Green, from Grimes to Martin, and worst of all from Doncic to Davis—you’re not learning. You’re compounding. And now, that same front office holds the keys to the Cooper Flagg era, courtesy of a 1.8% lottery miracle.
Will Harrison resist bad trade offers on draft night? Will he suddenly see talent clearly, now that the stakes are higher than ever? It’s fair to be trepidatious.
Because this is no longer just about the past. It’s about whether Nico Harrison can manage the delicate balance of an 18-year-old franchise savior and a win-now timeline defined by injured veterans. One is recovering from a devastating injury. The other, we’re all bracing for the next one once the season starts.
Back to Where We Started
Desmond Bane is gone from DFW now. He blossomed elsewhere. But for a moment, he was right here, waiting to be seen, drafted, believed in.
And now? The same line applies again.
He’s here in DFW now — but he won’t be for long.
Only this time, we’re talking about Nico Harrison.
Whether it’s before the season, mid-year, or after another playoff flameout, his time is ticking. Because at some point, it’s not about the mistakes. It’s about the man who keeps making them—and the ones who let him.