[Clark] Concern built that Dončić’s body would break down possibly sooner than anyone would suspect. It eventually reached a point where Harrison felt he had to move on from someone who could still one day be a league MVP. Dallas was also never going to offer the super max to him.
In November, Dončić missed five games with what the Mavericks announced as a right wrist sprain. That injury classification was not entirely true. In reality, Dončić was supposed to use time off to improve his conditioning, team sources said.
Dallas might have worried about Dončić’s body, but until a recent calf ailment, he had never missed significant time because of injury. This will be his first season playing fewer than 60 games. (On the other side, Davis is six years his elder and has failed to compete in 60 games during four of the previous six seasons. Considering the injury he suffered during his first game with the Mavericks, he could miss that landmark again in 2024-25.)
Nonetheless, concern built, including with Harrison, that Dončić’s body would break down possibly sooner than anyone would suspect. It eventually reached a point where Harrison felt he had to move on from someone who could still one day be a league MVP.
Had he remained in Dallas, Dončić would have been eligible to sign a five-year, $345 million contract. The estimation from the outside, one that The Athletic confirmed once the trade completed, was that he wanted to re-up with the organization for the long term come July. Dončić said as much when he arrived for his introduction in Los Angeles.
But there was one twist: The Mavericks were never going to offer Dončić that mega deal, league sources said. And a general manager identifying one star to trade, negotiating with only one GM he knows and trusts and targeting only one player who he’s worked with before and whose character he can vouch for — just as Harrison did with Dončić, Pelinka and Davis — was no accident.
Those who know Harrison best insist that once he trusts someone, he turns transparent as glass.