Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison has been roundly mocked since trading away Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, but not by Charles Barkley, who issued a defense of Harrison after Doncic and the Lakers were eliminated from the playoffs Wednesday.

Moments after the Minnesota Timberwolves defeated the Lakers in Game 5 of their first-round series, Barkley knocked Doncic for his defensive effort, as well as playing shape, while giving credit to Harrison in the process.

“This is a point I want to make on this Dallas situation,” Barkley said on ‘Inside the NBA' early Thursday morning. “I thought a lot of the criticism for Nico, I thought was a little unfair. Because yeah, they made it to the Finals last year with Kyrie and Luka, but that team was mediocre until Nico went out and got PJ [Washington], [Daniel] Gafford, and [Dereck] Lively. That took them to the next level, so Nico did a fabulous job last year. We can talk about the trade this year, but last year — Luka's hell of a player, Kyrie's a hell of a player, but the Mavericks, if you go back and look, they were in the bottom of the pile until he made those trades and got all those big guys. At some point, you just can't go out and get big guys 'cause he (Doncic) can't play no damn defense. He got to learn how to play defense and get in shape.”

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Both Doncic's defense and conditioning were reportedly major factors in Harrison's decisions in trading Doncic just before the deadline in February. Although one of the top offensive players in the league, Doncic has been routinely criticized for a lack of effort defensively, as well as coming into the season out of shape. When healthy, neither seems to affect his teams too much, but Doncic has struggled with soft-tissue injuries and is at his best with strong defenders around him.

The Lakers ran into that problem in Game 5, as Doncic, who picked up a back injury late in the first half, was targeted relentlessly by the Timberwolves in pick-and-rolls. The biggest issue for L.A., though, turned out to be Rudy Gobert, who capitalized on the Lakers' lack of size in the middle and earned the first 20-20 postseason game of his career.