Mavericks letting key player leave for LA Clippers and signing Klay Thompson makes Nico Harrison look silly, says Brian Windhorst

The Dallas Mavericks survived their first Play-In game, but they could have made the playoffs outright had they not made a series of poor moves. At this point, there’s not much more to say regarding the trade that sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers . Even the deal that sent Quentin Grimes to the Philadelphia 76ers has been examined from every angle.

This season, one thing is clear: Mavericks’ general manager Nico Harrison made a series of questionable –if not downright moronic–moves that dismantled a Western Conference-winning roster. Harrison has insisted that Anthony Davis brings the size and defensive intensity that Doncic never did, but fans aren’t buying the story. If “defense wins championships,” Harrison wouldn’t have made an often-overlooked move this offseason, before the train really derailed.



Derrick Jones Jr. was the first domino to fall Last season, Derrick Jones Jr. was an overlooked piece of the Dallas Mavericks’ run.

He helped slow down some of the best wings in the NBA and allowed Doncic and Kyrie Irving to slow down on defense, preserving themselves for scoring. Jones Jr. was one of the most versatile players on the roster, but when the Los Angeles Clippers offered him $30 million over three years, the Mavericks instead chose to pursue Klay Thompson , which goes against Harrison’s newfound “defense wins championships” mantra.

“Defense does win, that’s true, but they had good defense last year,” explained ESPN’s Brian Windhorst . “They were, like, second in the league in the playoffs in defense. Luka actually played really good defense down the stretch of last season, the last like 20 games when they made the trades.

” The Mavericks, in recent seasons, crafted perhaps the perfect roster around Doncic. PJ Washington and Derrick Jones Jr. spaced the floor and brought defensive intensity, Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II caught lobs and blocked shots, and Kyrie Irving helped facilitate and score in the backcourt.

On top of that, the group appeared willing to play for, not just alongside, one another. Jones Jr. was a key defender on the Finals-bound team.

“The guy who’s now saying defense wins championships, to the point where he traded a generational player, they let Derrick Jones Jr. walk, who was their, arguably their best defender, ask the Clippers how that’s going,” Windhorst continued. “It’s a tremendous signing.

” Clippers are quietly enjoying Mavericks’ blunder While the Los Angeles Lakers got the biggest prize, the Clippers are finding success . After being expected to win only 35.5 games this season, the Clippers are the fifth seed, have won 50 games, and are expected to be one of the most dangerous teams in the playoff picture.

Their third-ranked defense is a massive reason why, and Jones Jr. is playing a defining role in their success. While he has never made an All-Defensive team–and Klay Thompson has–Jones Jr.

is in his prime, and Thompson is not the defender he once was. “They let Derrick Jones walk so they could sign Klay Thompson, who, before he got injured, was an excellent defender,” admitted Windhorst. “If you had gotten Klay Thompson seven years ago and said defense wins championships, that would have been true.

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that’s disingenuous to say that you’re going ‘defense first’, when you took your best perimeter player that helped you get to the Finals and then swap them out for Klay.” Dallas did look solid on both ends of the floor in their Play-In win over the Kings, but had they kept Jones Jr. and Doncic, they wouldn’t have to play the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday for the privilege of losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round.

This article first appeared on NBA Analysis Network and was syndicated with permission..