Sitting at 5-14 and equipped by an interim front office, it's safe to say Nico Harrison's vision for the Dallas Mavericks didn't go according to plan, yet the ripple effects of his decisions are continuing to hurt the Mavericks, and not just with the Luka Doncic trade. Harrison's primary free agent target, D'Angelo Russell, has had the most inefficient season of his career up to this point in Dallas, and it will be extremely hard to trade Russell since he still has a season-and-a-half left on his contract.
After negotiating with Kyrie Irving to take less money on his new deal over the summer to open up the Taxpayer's MLE for Dallas, Harrison and company opted to sign Russell to a one-plus-one, but the caveat is that Russell has a player option for the 2026-27 season, though he's playing at a level to where Dallas certainly wishes that was a team option instead.