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According to new reporting from DLLS Sports, a team source recalls an internal document in which Dallas Mavericks GM Nico Harrison placed Jrue Holiday in the same trade target tier as Nikola Jokic. That eyebrow-raising eval is surfacing alongside Harrison’s ouster as Dallas moves to interim leadership. Report: Harrison Put Jrue Holiday in Nikola Jokic Tier DLLS Sports’ Tim Cato reports that one Mavericks team source remembers a front-office document where Jrue Holiday — the Portland Trail Blazers All-Defense guard, and a two-time NBA champion — appeared in the same trade tier as Nikola Jokic, a multi-time MVP and Finals MVP centerpiece for the Denver Nuggets. The anecdote is framed as one example that raised internal questions about Harrison’s talent evaluations while he ran Dallas’ front office. That nugget lands the same week the Mavericks fired Harrison, less than a year after he orchestrated the blockbuster Luka Doncic–Anthony Davis trade with the Los Angeles Lakers. Multiple outlets confirmed Harrison’s dismissal, with Dallas elevating Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi as interim co-leads in basketball operations. The Doncic trade is the pivot point. The February deal sent Doncic to the Lakers and brought back Davis as the headline return. Los Angeles has surged with Doncic, while Dallas stumbled out of the gate this fall — a backdrop that accelerated pressure on Harrison’s seat. Why the ‘Jrue = Jokic’ tier matters Front offices routinely bucket targets into tiers to guide price, urgency and fallback plans. But grouping a two-way guard (Holiday) with a franchise-shaping big (Jokic) implies either an extreme overvaluation of Holiday, an under-valuation of Jokic, or a process that didn’t map cleanly onto team-building reality. According to DLLS’ reporting, league figures had already questioned whether Harrison’s scouting chops from Nike would translate to a coherent, sustained NBA roster build. The document recollection became one illustration. None of this is a knock on Holiday’s impact – he’s a champion and elite defender – but Jokic sits in the ultra-rare “change your franchise’s destiny” bucket. If the tiers blurred at the very top, it helps explain other aggressive swings that didn’t age well and the confidence behind them. What It Means for Dallas Going Forward Process is the keyword. Dallas hasn’t just changed the face of the roster; it’s changing how decisions get made. The team says Finley and Riccardi are steering on an interim basis while ownership explores longer-term options. There’s external chatter about a reunion with Dennis Lindsey, who previously advised Dallas and currently works in Detroit — a move that would signal a pivot toward a more traditional scouting-and-cap table approach. For the Mavericks, the immediate questions are practical: Roster fit: If Anthony Davis is the core veteran, the Mavs must solve spacing and creation around him while keeping Cooper Flagg’s runway clear as the rebuild/retool centerpiece. Early-season offensive struggles underline how thin the margin is without a heliocentric creator like Doncic. Asset discipline: Dallas has limited firsts to maneuver in the near term, making hit rate on role-player adds critical. Overpaying on the wrong tier could hamstring the next front office just as it starts. (This is precisely why the tiering process matters.) Coaching alignment: Any new GM must be philosophically aligned with Jason Kidd (or a successor) on lineup priorities, especially around double-big looks and ball-handling hierarchy that dogged the early schedule. Why This Story Connects Beyond Dallas The DLLS nugget taps a universal NBA lesson: mis-tiering at the apex is expensive. If a front office treats an elite star as interchangeable with a very good player, trade packages, cap planning and draft decisions follow that premise — and the ledger eventually shows it. For Portland Trail Blazers and Boston Celtics fans: It’s a backhanded compliment to Holiday that a rival GM valued him so highly; it also underscores how sticky his defensive equity is in league circles. For Denver Nuggets fans: It reaffirms Jokic’s separation from the pack — a tier of one for how he drives playoff shot quality and scheme-proof offense. For Lakers fans: It puts fresh context on why the Doncic bet has looked so good so fast: when you genuinely identify a top-tier engine and pay the freight, the ceiling rises immediately. Stats, Schedule & Context Mavericks record: 3-8 after 116–14 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks (Harrison was fired short thereafter). Lakers with Doncic: 8-3; Doncic averages 37.1 points in 37.1 minutes per game with 9.4 rebounds and 9.1 assists.
