The Los Angeles Lakers are revelling of their Slovenian celebrity handed to them on a platter however Paul Pierce says Nico Harrison just isn’t the largest downside.
The Luka Doncic commerce is about to dominate dialogue for years to come back and it’ll change into fever pitch because the Los Angeles Lakers progress within the playoffs.
The Dallas Mavericks traded him to win a championship, in Nico Harrison’s phrases. Nevertheless, whereas the Mavericks are within the play-in scrap, Lakers are first-round favourites in opposition to the Timberwolves.
Harrison is catching lots of flak for Doncic’s commerce and his personal feedback haven’t helped a lot, however Paul Pierce recognized a a lot deeper downside for the commerce that’s plaguing a number of groups within the NBA.
Regardless of what Harrison and the Mavericks appear intent on making the followers imagine, it’s onerous to agree with the notion that any staff within the league is best off by not having Luka Doncic on it.
The transformation has been clear to see on the Lakers too, who have been flirting with play-in when Doncic arrived and instantly catapulted themselves up the standings.
Pierce spoke on Skip Bayless present and agreed with Bayless that Harrison’s reasoning behind the Doncic commerce made sense though it didn’t work out.
Bayless mentioned: “Nico Harrison was betting on this yr, and perhaps subsequent yr to flip a change with AD and Kyrie however that went proper out the window instantly [due to injuries]. He doubled down on this yr, went for broke and he busted. Now it’s wanting dangerous.”
Pierce agreed with Bayless and mentioned that regardless of Harrison getting ‘busted’, the actual downside lies elsewhere.
He mentioned: “What does this say about possession? Take into consideration the 2 new house owners [Dallas and Phoenix]. Tried to make a splash however fully busted. There’s some dangerous house owners out right here.
“They don’t know a lot concerning the sport. They simply wish to make a splash and it simply doesn’t look good. We want extra guys who’ve been across the sport to get extra into possession teams as a result of it’s simply dangerous.”
Pierce makes an attention-grabbing level usually misplaced within the dialogue and hatred for Harrison that the Mavericks GM may simply be the face of a call by the house owners.
Mark Cuban’s unequivocal backing for Doncic is sort of legendary at this level and Harrison has been at Dallas from his time as nicely.
Why, then, was Doncic traded after the change in possession when the GM didn’t change? That factors to this being a call pushed by the house owners.
It’s fully doable that Harrison led the decision-making on this one and this had been effervescent beneath the floor, with solely Cuban stopping it.
Nevertheless, the house owners are getting away largely scot-free as Harrison has change into the face of this farcical resolution, justifying it in all places and solely digging a deeper gap for himself.
Think about making a commerce so dangerous that conspiracy theories sound more true than sporting causes!
