Kevin Gray, DLLS Mavs Podcast Host

How are you Kevin? Ron James and JJ Reddick and obviously his Lakers teammates and then him coming back to Dallas for the first time being showered with love and praise throughout the course of the game. It's an experience like I've never had before covering a game or going to any kind of sporting event where the home team was essentially an opponent of the fans on a particular night just because that is just how much the fans love Luka Doncic that the Mavericks became an opponent in their own building it felt like in a lot of ways last night for sure. I mean there was no bigger opponent than Nico Harrison as he kind of stood in the tunnel and the fans were chanting to fire him we saw a video of Mark Cuban kind of putting his head down and just like I guess reality hit him once again like it's it's hitting I guess every now and then everybody in Dallas.

Nico just has to kind of grin and bear it. When's the next time he talks to the media end of season which is going to be soon? It would be at the end of the season when they have exit interviews whenever their season does come to an end I mean they're locked into the play-in now and will face the Sacramento Kings in the play-in the question will be whether it's in Dallas or Sacramento it's most likely going to be in Stacktown given the standings and the Kings holding the tiebreaker so the Mavericks would have to win not one but two games on the road just to get to the 8-C with the opportunity to face Shay Gildas-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder so it doesn't it doesn't look good in terms of their prospects of making any kind of run or even getting out of the play-in for that matter.

Not at all. Kevin Gray is joining us from the DLLS podcast covers all things Dallas Mavericks you know I told you about Anthony Davis said he fell asleep last night he had a whopping 13 points and 11 rebounds now granted he doesn't have a playmaker to give him the ball but this is not shocking coming from Anthony Davis have the fans just kind of been one big yawn with him like nobody cares am I wrong? I mean last night in particular he was an afterthought and for a player who's a member of the 75 year anniversary team the 10 time All-Star and NBA champion a gold medalist he's literally won a title on every level from high school all the way through the professional ranks this is no slouch but at the same time he's not the homegrown superstar that played six and a half years in Dallas that took the team to an NBA finals and was a generational superstar and for Davis he's been put into a very very difficult situation where he's trying to do the best that he can even playing through injury to provide fans somewhat of comfort because he is there but at the same time he will just never be the guy because their guy is now playing with his old buddy and LeBron James so I did I was disappointed in Davis' performance last night I mean the Lakers excuse me the you know the Lakers did a lot of things you know defensively I thought to keep him from getting the ball in certain areas but at the same time I thought he would be a lot more aggressive given the nature of the game the emotion coming into it and knowing that Doncic would be looking to put on a show and I thought Davis would try to respond in kind and it just simply did not materialize throughout the course of the game last night absolutely but are the fans are they sick of him like already nobody do they care about him nobody cares right nobody in Dallas cares about Anthony Davis well I would say they're not sick of him they realize that this this trait has nothing to do with Anthony Davis to how they feel about him personally I think the large you know conversation has been you know that this is a guy who has been put into an impossible situation and they're not blaming Davis at all for any of this he just happened to be the one that was traded for Doncic so on a personal level as a player Mavericks fans who may not necessarily have embraced him but at the same time they're not angry with Anthony Davis by no means at all. You know that's that's being saved for for Nico Harrison when you think about the future of this this team this organization knowing that Kyrie is hurt torn ACL going into a contract year where he has an option we just talked about Anthony Davis there's no chance or whatsoever we don't know he'll be healthy one day and non-aggressive the next where is there a glimmer of hope that this can turn around? It's difficult because not only you mentioned with Kyrie Irving you know he may not be you know available for most of the season you know next year Anthony Davis has a three year hundred and seventy five million dollar extension that kicks in at the beginning of this upcoming season so there's a lot of money on the line between him and Kyrie Irving that you're going to have to begin to pay guys like Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington are extension eligible as well so they've got real decisions to make and they don't have control of their picks from the years two thousand twenty seven through twenty thirty so all the future that they've leveraged to make this happen and then moving on from Luca Doncic has put this organization in a really really really bad position that if they don't succeed and find a way to win a title in the next year or two they'll be staring in the face of having to essentially blow the thing up and start all the way over and Nico Harrison I imagine would not survive any of that by the time that decision would be made because it's already considered the worst trade in NBA history if not sports history say Babe Ruth but at the same time it already looked like a loss in a lot of ways because you smoked away already a window of time to try to win a championship this year and most of next year already anyway so yeah it's it's it's pretty bleak given their situation that they've got to face in a number of areas. Kevin Gray is here with us on the JR Sport Brief Show covers the Mavs for the DLLS podcast and show well somebody had to approve the deal and that's obviously Patrick Dumont this they were chanting fire Nico did he was he the guy who was the engineer of this well I was trying to figure out why Dumont didn't get a little bit more heat when he talks he puts his foot in his mouth but people don't typically blame the owner you know well this was Nico's trade he was the one that approached Dumont about this he was the one that began conversations with Rob Palenka the GM of the Los Angeles Lakers this was all his idea and he had earned somewhat of credibility you know from last year acquiring P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford and pairing those individuals along with Luca Dodge, Kyrie Irving you know a terrific young center and Derek Lively the second and all of a sudden they're making a run to the NBA finals so in a lot of ways Patrick Dumont trusts Nico Harrison to make the basketball decisions because he saw the results from less than a year ago so the problem Dumont had was not consulting really anyone else you know when it came to the idea of trading Luca Dodge's because even from the basketball side of things we know how absurd the trade was but from a pure business standpoint it just made no sense at all given just the popularity of the player and the amount of business that the player generates that it just did not make sense in any number of areas so Dumont definitely has a lot of blame for this but Nico Harrison will always be the one that will be the face of this trade because he was the one that decided it was time to be out of the Luca Dodge's business and one of the moves forward in doing so. We saw well I mean just over the past couple of days we saw Michael Malone and we saw Calvin Booth get fired at the same time for just internal issues with the Denver Nuggets I'm not saying that this is the case in Dallas but when you have Jason Kidd who's just one of the greatest players of all time I don't care point guard or elsewhere he was a one man a basketball team by himself.

Do we see a scenario he just goes you know what I don't want to be a part of this anymore? I mean honestly JR at this point anything's possible in the league after Luca Dodge's got traded anything is possible at this point but yeah it does reach a point where it potentially becomes untenable for parties involved here to continue forging forward when there will continue to be public outcries for Nico Harrison and Jason Kidd to lose their jobs in the wake of making this trade and how much this team has gone by the wayside in just a short amount of time given what they've decided to do from a personnel standpoint so that will be up to DeMonte to ultimately make the decision on whether or not Kidd and Harrison survive here but yeah it would not be out of the realm of possibility if certain parties decided you know what I can't handle this and deal with this anymore because it will be a constant state of conversation no matter what because of the magnitude of the trade and the player that that was traded. Yeah it just unfortunately seems like a matter of time it's just bad all the way around well Kevin thank you so much for the time I mean we're looking at the Washington Wizards of the of Texas sooner than later right? Let's just hope they don't turn into the Washington Generals if that's the case. I think they may be on their way there hey Kevin where can people follow you and everything DLLS? Appreciate it man yeah you can find me on twitter at kevingraysports I host the DLLS Mavs podcast five times a week and do our pre and post game shows as well throughout the course of the season as part of the all city network with DLLS Sports but you can find me on exit at kevingraysports. Amazing hey enjoy the rest of the season while it's still here okay kevin you'll be looking at the drafts well maybe you won't be looking at the draft you'll be looking at the Generals too. Appreciate you appreciate the day.