**You mention Luka’s workload at the current rate he’s going, what have you thought about the way he’s handled the load so far and what might need to be tweaked going forward for him to be able to sustain this kind of dominance?**
Harrison: Really, it just comes back to us doing what we’re supposed to do in terms of making shots. Honestly, it’s really simple. If we make shots, there’s games he should be on the bench and not having to play. When he’s in the game, he’s going to have a high usage rate. That’s just the nature. But we could make it easier on him by finishing and making shots for the team. I think if you look at last year, we probably were doing the same thing, so in that regard, it’s not surprising, but it all turns around. Law of averages, they all equal out.
**Do you regret or reflect as management on not making a stronger push during the thick of free agency to re-sign Jalen or add another point guard, especially knowing how crucial three ball handlers was to the playoff run last spring?**
Harrison: One, us not re-signing [Jalen] wasn’t our choice.
**Right, but do you regret any part of the response in free agency by not pursuing Goran Dragic as a back-up point guard who’s now part of the Bulls’ regular rotation or a more established, reliable third option?**
Harrison: You can look back at it and say that, but I also have faith in the guys that we have here. Again, guys haven’t made shots, but we’ve seen them do it, and I have faith in them. I think if guys make shots just at the rate or slightly below what they normally do, we’re not even having this conversation. I think that erases a lot of the doubt or the feeling that we’re not quite achieving what the expectations would’ve been. The law of averages, they eventually equal out, and guys will make shots.
[Source](https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/mavericks/2022/12/02/nico-harrison-qa-how-mavs-gm-views-jalen-brunson-exit-christian-wood-future-and-more/)
by urfaselol
38 Comments
This guy is a fucking idiot.
The issue has not just been about making shots. They made shots last night.
A bigger problem is they keep playing down to their competition. They have lost 6 games to teams that were without their core players.
Also he tried dodging the third ball-handler question so hard, he knows they f’d up.
People use averages incorrectly a lot.
Law of averages lol. That’s a scary quote. Guy won’t accept that 5 of his top 8 guys cannot do anything on offense but stand still. I wonn’t even comment on their defense lmao
Have you watched a single defensive possession by your team you dolt ?
> Harrison: One, us not re-signing [Jalen] wasn’t our choice.
Mf thought Dwight Powell money was too much for him in the summer and now spinning bullshit.
> Really, it just comes back to us doing what we’re supposed to do in terms of making shots. Honestly, it’s really simple. If we make shots, there’s games he should be on the bench and not having to play.
I mean this is the perfect scenario for every single star player in the NBA, but that’s not the reality. I don’t know anything about Nico Harrison, but if I had to make an opinion just based on these few quotes, I’d worry that he is completely out of touch with how basketball works.
Tbh I dont really think you can take interviews with execs seriously. Most of the time they’ll be saying whatever is in support of the current team. It’s all fluff. Ainge is the only gm that has publicly shat on the roster.
He was on a local radio station and sounded like he had no idea what he was talking about
Moronical.
Laws of Sucking they all average out.
When Luka leaves I’m done with this trash franchise
🤬.
This guy makes me miss Absentee GM Donnie Nelson.
He said he has faith in the guys we have as ball handlers.
Josh Green after Spencer was ejected and had to play PG said he hasn’t played PG since High School. WTF
Ball need go in basket. Simple.
Their players just need to make shots instead of miss shots. That kind of deep insight is why I will never be hired to an NBA front office.
He’s a fucking idiot, which is why he was the perfect hire for Cuban, who is also a fucking idiot.
Luka isn’t winning shit with this awful franchise
idk man, I think the issue is the trash roster constructed around him and the dickhead coach you hired. But that’s just one man’s opinion who hasn’t ever fucked up a sales pitch to Steph Curry.
As long as Cuban is here Mavs will have yes mans as gm instead of competent ones.
That’s fucking bullshit. If the Mavs offered Jalen more money than the Knicks they would’ve been shouting it from the rooftops with their puppets Stein and Townsend. But instead those two just parroted MacMahons ballpark figure estimation of it being around Vanvleets salary. I’m so fucking tired of this organization treating every one expect Luka like fucking garbage, and then allowing people to drag our own players names through the mud without coming to their defense at all.
Spare me the bullshit, don’t talk about “Oh we need a ball handler” when we have someone who can handle the ball and defend well enough to where he played major minutes in the Suns series. But he sits on the bench like he shot 0-13 four nights in the row. THJ does that and starts the next game. The Mavs have a pattern of giving the players with the highest salaries the most playing time, almost to save face for the FO so that they can turn around and say, “See! This guy did good once in 12 games, good thing we don’t waste money by playing people on small contracts!”. You would think that bringing in a new GM would change that but apparently not. Kidd said he was disappointed in the way we played defense yesterday. Well what do you expect when Tim and Dinwiddie are out there being cones on defense and chucking/shooting early in the shot clock? We know how that goes. Best case scenario we barely out score the other team and lose a huge lead. A big part of our emerging culture last year was hanging out hats on defense and it doesn’t look like we care about that at all. Transition game is non existent bc the guy with the highest usage rate needs to walk the ball up the court to rest, gee I wonder how we could fix that? Oh look we gave the ball to Dinwiddie, Tim and possibly Jaden Hardy, I wonder why our scoring first players don’t positively affect the offense when they miss 65% of their shots! Oh well, that just proves that no one else on the team deserves a ball handling role, not like Green and Ntilikina will try to pass the ball. I mean there’s no way Green can pump fake from the corner, drive baseline into two defenders under the basket, do a 360 spin, no look assist into the other corner right! Lmao no way we have a guy on the team like that, if we did of course we would let him run the offense at least twice a game. Oh well we must not have anyone like that
TLDR: sad Mavs noises
Seeing the job that Harrison has done I wish that Cuban had hired Voulgaris as a gm. Pretty certain he would do a better job.
Mark Cuban is being exposed as a joke of an owner
Is he expecting the Mavs to go back to shooting 40% from 3? Seems like an irrational expectation
Damn we really at the point of leaning on fucking goran dragic lol
Wait so if Dallas offers what they could. How much more of it would it have been compared to NYK deal?? I always thought jalen was leaning toward NY
It’s like work on offense..There is no joy.. Atleast run the break for Open 3s and layups.
Nike. Just do it™
Nico. Just make shots™
Luka won’t have a quality 2nd option in Dallas until his late 20s…..if that.
..luka is being wasted in dallas, how they haven’t gotten a better team around this superstar is mind blowing?
How about you sign some guys who can make some shots? SMH
This dude is a complete moron
Luka’s usage rate has actually fallen very close to his 2022 number (37.4%). It is now 37.8% from the absurd early season high of around 42%.
What hasn’t fallen however is the load Luka carries on offense. Luka is currently avging 10.2 minutes of ball possession. This would be the first season since [NBA.com](https://NBA.com) has tracked the data (public) in 2014 that a player has past the 9 minute mark.
Last season Luka avg 9.3, which was his first time over 9 minutes. Only Harden and Westbrook have multiple seasons over 9 minutes and even they didn’t get close to the 10 minute threshhold.
I’m gonna bash my head in. “We just gotta make shots” what kind of fucking answer is that? There is no such thing as law of averages for this team, most of our players are pushing 30, they’re just ass. No skillset besides shooting and you can even argue that. Most teams have players that can drive to the basket consistently and ours cant do that.
They didn’t even play Jaden hardy and his whole family was in the stands. That’s fucking stupid. If we’re gonna suck at least let Hardy get some minutes, he might get something going. Kidd playing josh green only 15 minutes is criminal, playing Bullock for whatever fucking reason when the mofo can’t even play defense, so I don’t understand what he’s out there for. Kidd wanted javale McGee for whatever reason and doesn’t play him because he’s ass, who would’ve seen that coming.
Disgusting franchise, disgusting owner, disgusting GM, disgusting coach. Shame on all of you, and if you think Luka is staying you must not know he played for real Madrid his whole life. He is not staying.
I’m done with this team, I’mma go watch the world cup. Fuck you Mark Cuban
Law of averages isn’t even real. It’s the law of large numbers…and this can only occur over millions of trials not the span of ten games or so 🤦♂️
So I guess the mavs FO approach is if Luka dies, he dies.
Luka gone lol
You see, Luka playing 10 more minutes a game is just like me doing my job and getting a new MVP Free Agent that can play for 10 minutes! — Nico, probably
I really don’t like it when the front office try to explain away their horrible performance by trying to use math. Does he really think that basketball is random and the law of averages will balance things out? Is basketball really the same as a coin flip? That’s really absurd. Case in point — Tim Hardaway has been horrible for the Mavs this year. His percentages are just way below his career averages — then Kidd puts him into the starting lineup and all of a sudden, he looks more like THJ of old. Was that the law of average or something else?
Here’s another hot take: If you score more points than the other team you win.
Oh ok. What.