The Dallas Mavericks are currently preparing for their nine vs ten play-in game vs the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday evening. It's been a steady downhill trajectory this season for the Mavericks since they shockingly traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Recently, general manager Nico Harrison thought it would be a good idea to hold a press conference with some members of the local media to try to explain his perspective on the deal. One person in attendance for that was ESPN reporter Tim McMahon, who recently dropped by SportsCenter to relay his thoughts.

“It was a complete and epic failure two and a half months after the fact to explain the logic behind the most controversial trade in NBA history,” said McMahon, per NBA on ESPN on X, formerly Twitter. “If the point was to soothe the feelings of an outraged fanbase, this was an epic failure.”

A bad look for the Mavericks

Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison (right) looks on during warms up before the game between the Dallas Mavericks and the Memphis Grizzlies at the American Airlines Center.
Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

McMahon also mentioned in his report that Harrison repeated the phrase “defense wins championships” in response to a multitude of questions about the trade.

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While it's true that Anthony Davis (the Mavericks' return piece in the trade) is a better defender than Luka Doncic, that hardly explains the logic behind trading away a perennial MVP candidate theoretically just now entering the prime years of his career, and only months removed from an appearance in the NBA Finals.

Things have somehow gotten even worse for the Mavericks in the two months since the trade, as Kyrie Irving has gone down with a torn ACL and Davis only recently returned from an injury of his own.

In order to advance to the playoffs, the Mavericks would have to defeat both the Kings on Sunday as well as the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday, only to be matched up with the 68-win Oklahoma City Thunder on less than 48 hours of rest.

If only the Mavericks had a five time First-Team All NBA member on their team to help ease their burden.

Wouldn't that be nice?