Tim MacMahon on Nico Harrison addressing Luka Doncic trade to Lakers: Nico Harrison doubled down, he tripled down, he quadrupled down… I could go on, I ran out of fingers counting how many times that he said defense wins championships. So he’s sticking with that. Now, the Mavericks last year had the top defense in the league for the final 20 games, even in the finals against the Celtics, 109.2 defensive rating. That would have ranked second in the league last regular season. They lost that series for other reasons but that logic maybe doesn’t necessarily add up. Neither does this: The Mavericks owe their first round draft capital for deals they made to successfully build around Luca in ’27, ’28, ’29 and ’30, either outright or swaps. Nico Harrison created what he calls a three-to-four year time frame to be a championship contender, obviously year one ruined by injuries. I pushed back on the logic of that. He just kept going back to the defense wins championships mantra. Quite frankly, a lot doesn’t make sense but Nico made it clear he does plan to be the general manager of the Mavericks for the rest of his contract, which has three years left.