Report: Nico Harrison fired 3 Mavericks employees he viewed as Luka Doncic's "enablers"

Back in February, Nico Harrison stunned the basketball world by trading Luka Doncic to the LA Lakers. Months removed from the league-altering trade, more developments continue to emerge that led to the Dallas Mavericks trading the star guard.

As one of the NBA's top talents getting ready to enter his prime, Doncic was expected to be a pillar of the Mavs for at least the next decade. However, Harrison had other plans. Less than a year removed from Doncic taking Dallas to the NBA Finals, he was traded to the Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis.

In a recent column for ESPN, Tim MacMahon broke down some of Nico Harrison's prior decisions that led up to the trade. It seems as though there was far from a seamless relationship between the executive and people throughout the organization.

---

Nico Harrison reportedly fired multiple employees viewed as 'enablers' to Luka Doncic

When news of the trade first broke, one of the early developments was that it had to do with conditioning. The Mavericks didn't believe Doncic put enough work into maintaining himself physically, which raised concern as he was getting ready to be eligible for a supermax extension.

This is something Nico Harrison and the Mavericks tried to rectify long before the trade, though there could have been other ulterior motives. Not long after Dallas came up short against the Boston Celtics, numerous members of the Mavs' performance staff were removed from their positions. MacMahon reported this week that Harrison felt they enabled Doncic's behavior, which led to their dismissal.

"Smith, Holsopple and Spangler were all longtime Mavs employees who had helped Doncic, a Slovenian who spent his adolescence in Spain, make the major cultural transition after coming to Dallas as a teenager," MacMahon wrote. "They had become confidantes for the superstar, but sources said Harrison saw them as 'enablers' of Doncic"

Last week, Nico Harrison addressed a select group of Dallas media for the first time since the blockbuster trade. When these firings were brought up, he stated that the decision has yielded positive results.

"We feel that the guys that replaced them have done an amazing job," Harrison said. "And again, you're coming at me from a negative standpoint, and I look at it from a positive standpoint. The guys that we brought in are better."

Following the Doncic trade, things quickly went off the rails for the Mavs. AD ended up getting hurt in his debut, and Kyrie Irving later suffered a season-ending ACL injury.

Dallas tried to salvage their season in the play-in tournament but failed to secure a spot in the playoffs. Harrison will now attempt to improve the roster over the summer in hopes of proving his critics wrong.