Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison will not escape his YOLO deal that in ideal circumstances had a chance of succeeding in 2025 or 2026.

Year I of that plan officially, and mercifully, ended on Friday night. The Memphis Grizzlies ran up and down on the “defense wins championships” Mavericks, 120-106 in the final play-in game in Memphis.

The Mavericks became the 11th team in NBA history to reach the NBA Finals one season, and miss the playoffs the next. Go big, and then go home.

They would/can never say it, but no NBA team needed their season to end more than the Mavs. A few hours before the Mavs were bounced off Beale Street, their former teammate chatted with ESPN where Luka Doncic revealed he was “heartbroken” when he learned he was traded by the Mavs to the Los Angeles Lakers.

He said he has not spoken to Harrison since the trade, and when he learned of the deal he threw his phone. The same can be said for 109.99% of Mavs fans.

Forget Harrison’s justification of the deal that “defense wins championships,” his vision was a tiny window built around two Hall of Fame players who are on the wrong side of 30, and have injury histories.

Harrison sold the long term health of the Mavericks for a short term deep 3-point shot. Now it looks like a desperation heave.

Once All-Star guard Kyrie Irving suffered a torn ACL in early March, it ended any chance the Mavs had of returning to the NBA Finals. Irving with Anthony Davis, Dereck Lively, Daniel Gafford along with Klay Thompson and P.J. Washington — that’s a team that would have been a problem.

That team never played together, and it may never.

Irving is 33 years old, and by the time he returns late next season he will not be the same guy he was before the injury. There is chatter he could return in January of 2026, but to think he will be the same dynamic scorer at the rim as he works his way back into basketball shape is a big ask.

That scenario basically wipes out Harrison’s vision for a “defense wins championships” in Year II, in 2025-’26. Maybe they make the playoffs.

Which puts him at Year III, when Irving will be 35, and Davis 34. If Thompson is still with the Mavs in what would be the final year of his contract, he would be 38.

He signed in the offseason with the Mavs based on the team’s need of a 3-point shooter who would cash in on the space created by Doncic. At Thompson’s age, he is now an every-now-and-then scorer, who averages around 14 points a game. Expect that number to continue to drop.

The chances of these three Hall of Fame players consistently producing at All-Star levels for a regular season, and a playoff run in the spring of 2027, when they are those ages is not just low percentage but ridiculous.

Harrison will make more moves in the summer, but he doesn’t have a lot to deal. The Mavs do have a first round draft selection in the upcoming NBA draft, which will be in the lottery. (They’re not getting Duke forward Cooper Flagg.)

As evidenced in Davis’ limited time since the trade, he’s an All-Star who can carry a team. He also constantly battles injuries. That’s not apt to improve as he gets older.

Against the Grizzlies, he scored 40 points with nine rebounds. At the moment, he has to feel like he’s back in New Orleans, where he began his career. He’s again on a team that needs some talent in key spots.

No NBA franchise went through more this season than the Mavs; a team that began the season with the expectations of potentially returning to the Finals is now in the lottery, and they can only not blame themselves but their GM.

Patrick Dumont owns the Mavericks, but Harrison runs the franchise. This roster is his. All of it.

He traded Luka Doncic to rebuild the team around a premise of “defense wins championships,” based on older guys who get hurt.

The only way the Mavs “win” this trade is if they win an NBA title with Davis, and Luka never does in Los Angeles.

The Mavs' best chances to win that title with Davis was a three-year window, and that’s already busted.

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