Doncic's contract and Dallas defense - Mavericks attempt to justify star's trade - video Dailymotion

Mavericks GM Nico Harrison explains the departure of one of the NBA's biggest stars

Transcript

00:00There's some unique things about his contract

00:03that we had to pay attention to.

00:05There's other teams that were loading up

00:07that he was going to be able to decide

00:09to make his own decision at some point of whether he

00:12wants to be here or not, whether we want to supermax him or not,

00:15or whether he wants to opt out.

00:17So I think we had to take all that into consideration

00:19and feel like we got out in front of what could have

00:21been a tumultuous summer.

00:22So the easiest thing for me to do is do nothing,

00:25and everyone would praise me for doing nothing.

00:27But we really believe in it, and time

00:30will tell if I'm right.

00:31Defense wins championships, and we're

00:33bringing in one of the best two-way players in the league.

00:35A lot of people don't talk about what he does defensively

00:38and offensively, but if you guys,

00:40you can name first-team all-NBA players that are also

00:43first-team all-defensive players.

00:45That's a unique unicorn to try to find,

00:48and we're able to find that.

00:49And as well, you look at Max Christie.

00:52He was their starting two guard, guarded all the top players

00:55in the league, and he's young and athletic and bouncy

00:58and gets his hands on lots of balls.

01:00So we really feel that they're adding into the culture

01:04that we're trying to create here.

01:06We feel that defense wins championships,

01:08and we're excited to go.

01:10We feel like we're built to win now as well as in the future.