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The Dallas Mavericks have fired general manager Nico Harrison after a disastrous start to the 2025 season and his questionable decision-making the past few years. Harrison was signed by Dallas on June 28, 2021, where he made an immediate impact on the franchise. 

The Mavericks would go on to have a 52-30 record in Harrison’s first season, where they made the playoffs and reached the Western Conference Finals, but ultimately lost to the Golden State Warriors. In just his first year with the team they nearly made the NBA finals so it looked like Harrison was a fantastic hire. However, he made some very head-scratching moves in the following years that led to him being relieved of his duties.

Such as getting rid of NBA All-Star Jalen Brunson, who has completely saved the New York Knicks franchise. Brunson was drafted by Dallas in 2018, where he was coming off a national championship at Villanova. He then grew into a very good role player for Dallas and had massive playoff performances when Luka Doncic was out with an injury. 

Despite all this, when Brunson became a free agent and wanted to re-sign with the Mavericks, Nico Harrison did not value Brunson enough to give him the contract extension he desired and let him walk. Since that decision, Jalen Brunson has evolved into a top-five point guard in the NBA and has taken the New York Knicks to three straight playoff appearances. 

Not only did Harrison let Brunson walk, but he also traded All-Star Kristaps Porzingis for Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans. Dinwiddie was very solid in his first stint with Dallas but it was short lived as he was then traded to the Brooklyn Nets just a year later in 2023 for Kyrie Irving.

Kyrie Irving is one of the best players in NBA history but ever since that trade occurred he’s been unable to stay healthy. Appearing in just 138 games over the last three years, and has yet to play in 2025 as he is recovering from a torn ACL.

The final straw for Nico Harrison was when he decided to trade the generational talent and franchise favorite Luka Doncic to the Lakers in 2024 for Anthony Davis. This was a move that no one ever saw coming, as it seemed Luka would remain a Dallas Maverick until his career was over. This sent the entire Mavericks fanbase in a frenzy from which they still have not recovered from to this day. Hundreds of fans gathered outside the American Airlines Center and protested the decision. 

This move was so serious that Nico Harrison would receive death threats from Mavericks fans. His time was up in Dallas, it was just a matter of when at this point. Harrison somehow lasted the entire 2024 season in Dallas and they proceeded to miss the playoffs just a year after reaching the NBA Finals lead by Doncic. 

The organization finally had enough after the Mavericks started this season 3-8. Following his firing on Tuesday, fans once again gathered outside the American Airlines Center, except this time they were cheering and relieved. It was a horrible ending to Harrison’s tenure and who knows what his future in the NBA looks like. 

The Knicks took on the crosstown rival Brooklyn Nets on Sunday night and handled business. Making it New York’s 11th straight win over Brooklyn, where they have not lost to the Nets since January of 2023, nearly three years ago.

Mike Brown’s impact cannot be understated, he has this Knicks team looking like the Harlem Globetrotters. The ball movement is beautiful to see, and despite New York having a nearly identical roster to last year, they are playing with a different level of confidence. 

New York came out of the gates red hot, scoring 40 first-quarter points building an early 18-point lead, which a 1-8 Nets team would attempt to come back from. The odds were not in their favor. However, Brooklyn did have a fantastic second quarter of their own, scoring 40 points as the young group of players seemed to find some chemistry heading into halftime down 77-62. 

But unfortunately for Brooklyn, that was the closest they would get for the rest of the night, as the Knicks came out of the half and put up a 35-point quarter to the Nets 17. As good as the Knicks offense was, the defense played lights out and forced the young Nets roster to take contested shot after contested shot. This mentality is what will carry the Knicks throughout the year — playing just as hard when they are up 20 or if it’s a one-score game, never taking their foot off the pedal.

New York went on to win 134-98, making it their fourth straight win while improving to 6-0 at home this year, the best record in the NBA. This blowout was led by “The Big Bodega” himself, Karl-Anthony Towns, who put up 28 points and 12 rebounds. Jordan Clarkson continues to play well as he made his impact with 11 points and 3 assists off the bench shooting 5-8 from the field.

Brooklyn’s Michael Porter Jr. finished his night with 25 points, the leading scorer for the Nets where he tried to carry the team as much as possible. Nets rookie guard Egor Demin looked solid, putting up 10 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. At just 19 years old he looks like a promising prospect for the franchise.

The Knicks have now improved to 6-3 on the season and will face off against Ja Morant and the Grizzlies Tuesday night. As for the Nets, they now drop to 1-9 on the year, with their next matchup against the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night. It is going to be a long year for Nets fans. 

The Mavericks have had an eventful past year. They shocked the NBA world by trading a generational talent in Luka Doncic in exchange for Anthony Davis, who has not been able to remain healthy. Following the trade, Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison was ripped apart by the fanbase and media for his actions, it was not looking good in Dallas.

That was until an absolute miracle happened at the NBA Draft Lottery that had many people questioning if it was possibly rigged. With all the negative attention surrounding the franchise, the Mavericks somehow won the Draft Lottery and received the number one pick despite only having a 1.8% chance of winning. 

Dallas would now be able to select Cooper Flagg with the first pick, who many people view as a future superstar in the league. The 6-foot-9 phenom made headlines at Duke University averaging 19 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists in his one year at the university. The 18-year-old now starts for the Dallas Mavericks, where their season has not gone to plan thus far.

Nine games into the year, the Mavericks are sitting at 2-7, which is one of the worst records in the NBA and places them dead last in the Western Conference. In their defense, they have had some very close losses which, if a few things had gone their way, they could be sitting with a couple more wins and I wouldn’t be writing this article.

With Anthony Davis out with an Achilles injury and Kyrie Irving recovering from a torn ACL, Dallas has had to rely on the 18-year-old, which is asking a lot for someone who just arrived on the big stage. Despite the pressure, Flagg has had a solid start to his NBA career, averaging 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists, but he cannot do this all alone. The biggest disappointment thus far has been Klay Thompson. Dallas signed him to a three-year, $50 million contract last July, and he has been a no-show this year. 

Klay is currently playing 20 minutes a night and is only averaging 7 points per game while shooting 26% from three. One of the best shooters in NBA history has looked like a shell of himself so far, and Dallas desperately needs his help. 

I think if the Mavericks continue to drop their next few games, it is officially time to panic. The Western Conference is the toughest in the league, and if they fall too far behind it will be extremely difficult to come back from. The success of this team relies on the health of Anthony Davis, who has yet to prove in a Mavericks uniform that he is able to do so. The Mavericks have a favorable matchup against the Washington Wizards tonight, which should get them back in the win column. 

The New York Knicks took care of business once again last night in their 137-114 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. The new rivalry was formed after last year’s blockbuster in-season trade, with New York receiving Karl-Anthony Towns in exchange for forward Julius Randle and guard Donte DiVincenzo. Last night we got to see those three pieces put on a show at Madison Square Garden. 

Julius Randle was determined to play well against his former team, he had a complicated relationship with the fans during his time in New York but has since found a new home with the Timberwolves. Randle wasted no time, opening the game by hitting a three-pointer from the top of the key to give Minnesota the 3-0 lead. He went on to score 18 points in the first half with 9 of them coming from behind the arc. Randle finished his night with 32 points and five rebounds, leading all scorers.

It didn’t stop there. The other key piece in the trade, Donte DiVincenzo, was red-hot from three, scoring 12 first half points, all of them being three-pointers. He continued to score in the second half and ended his night with 21 points. DiVincenzo looks comfortable in his new role as the starting point guard for Minnesota. 

Karl-Anthony Towns had 10 points and five rebounds at the half and finished his night with a 15 point, 10 rebound double-double — his seventh double-double already this season.

The game was back and forth, providing fans with an exciting first half where the Timberwolves found themselves up 58-54. However, this would all change as the Knicks once again made halftime adjustments and took control in the third quarter, where they would score 40 points led by the captain himself, Jalen Brunson. New York entered the fourth quarter up 94-86 and kept their foot on the pedal the rest of the way.

Jalen Brunson was relatively quiet in the first half but caught fire in the third quarter, scoring 12 points to get the Garden crowd on its feet. He went on to finish the night with 23 points, 10 assists, and seven rebounds — a near triple-double to go along with a win. As good as Brunson played, the game ball belongs to OG Anunoby.

Ever since the Knicks acquired Anunoby in a trade with the Toronto Raptors, he has been the teams biggest X-factor. The elite defense he provides along with the evolution of his offensive game has allowed the team to flourish. Anunoby finished his night as the Knicks leading scorer with 25 points, along with an impressive eight rebounds and two steals. When the Knicks are firing on all cylinders there are very few teams that can hang with them. Getting the win last night over the rival Timberwolves will surely help carry their momentum going forward.

The Knicks face off against the struggling Brooklyn Nets on Sunday night, where they will look to extend their win streak to 4 games.  

Coming off an incredible 2024-25 season, the New York Knicks look to continue their success heading into the 2025-26 season. The Knicks finished with a record of 51-31 last year and made their first Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 25 years.

Despite the great success, Knicks president Leon Rose was not satisfied and wanted to improve the roster in hopes of reaching and winning the finals in 2025 and I firmly believe that this is Possible.

After losing in the ECF to their bitter rival the Indiana Pacers, Leon Rose quickly realized there were many holes in this roster. The bench was lackluster with guys like Delon Wright, Precious Achiuwa, Cam Payne, and Jericho Sims as the backups. The one bright spot of the bench last year was Deuce McBride who has carried that success into the 2025 season.

Leon Rose wanted to improve the bench and he absolutely kept his word. The Knicks signed guard Jordan Clarkson to a one-year contract and forward Guerschon Yabusele to a two-year contract; these players are expected to make an impact this season.

The biggest move the Knicks made this offseason was firing head coach Tom Thibodeau. This move came as a surprise to many people across the league due to the team’s success since he arrived. Thibodeau had a record of 226-174 during his 5 seasons coaching the team, which was good enough to finish fourth all time in wins among Knicks head coaches.

However, there were still many flaws to Thibodeau’s coaching style, he has been known across the league for years to be one of the worst head coaches to play for due to his rotations. If you are a starter it is very likely that you will be playing 40 minutes per night, and if you’re a bench player, you get very little playing time.

This creates a weird dynamic on the team where the starters play too many minutes leading to fatigue down the stretch of games and an increased risk of potential injuries. It also leads to frustration from the bench players who don’t get to see the floor and impact the team. Last year we saw starting Shooting Guard Mikal Bridges call Thibs out, stating, “We’ve got a good enough team to where our bench guys can come in, and we don’t need to play 48 minutes, 47.”

After the comments from players and people around the league it was best to move on and I believe we hired the ideal coaching candidate in Mike Brown. The Knicks officially signed him to a contract on July 7th , 2025 where he is expected to change the culture of this franchise. Mike Brown is known to be one of the best offensive minded coaches in the league, constantly emphasizing pace and ball movement – the total opposite of former coach Tom Thibodeau.

The Knicks finished dead last in pace under Thibodeau in 2023 and in the bottom five in 2024. Whereas the Kings under Brown finished 12th in 2022 and 14th in 2023. The offense under Brown will have much better flow and ball movement which we have already seen just 8 games into the season. The Knicks have scored a combined 620 points over their last five games and have made three-point shooting a main focus.

It felt like every game under coach Thibs was stagnant and pure isolation basketball which hurt us during the playoffs. Teams would pick up on our offensive game plan, which mainly ran through Brunson on nearly every possession. Now, with Brown coming in, the previous rotation consisting of about seven players has expanded to nine or ten, a massive change. This will keep our players feeling fresh, with plenty of time to rest throughout the game.

With all that being said, by keeping the core of the team together with guys like Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, and Karl Anthony-Towns while also adding much needed bench pieces and hiring a new head coach, I firmly believe the Knicks will win over 60 games this year and win the Eastern Conference.

After a shaky start to the 2025 season, the Knicks had a favorable matchup against the Washington Wizards on Monday night.

The Knicks were coming off a huge win over the Chicago Bulls, handing them their first loss of the season and looked to carry over that momentum against a struggling Wizards team. New York had a slow start where they found themselves trailing 30-22 at the end of the 1st quarter, the Knicks could not get the 3 pointers to fall whereas Washington’s offense looked sharp with great ball movement.

Washington continued to score at will in the 2nd quarter which began to raise some concern for the Knicks as they still found themselves trailing nearing halftime. All this would change when Karl-Anthony Towns shifted the entire momentum of the game.

The Knicks inbounded the ball with 5 seconds remaining in the 2nd quarter down 54-53, Josh Hart pushed the ball down the floor and dished it to Towns who would hit a massive 4 point play at the buzzer to go up 57-54 at half.

Knicks coach Mike Brown made halftime adjustments and the rest was history. New York would go on to score an impressive 41 points in the 3rd quarter to go up 98-78, a massive 20 point lead heading into the 4th.

It seemed as if the Wizards hit a wall and the offense became stagnant which is not surprising considering they have a very young roster with a lot of room for improvement. These growing pains are part of the process and Washington showed some flashes of hope for the future. But being down 20 to the Jalen Brunson led Knicks at Madison Square Garden is not your favor.

New York continued to push the pace in route to a 119-102 win over the Washington Wizards led by Karl-Anthony Towns who put up a 33 point double double to go along with 5 assists. It was a relatively quiet game for the Knicks captain Jalen Brunson who put up a season low 16 points but had a season high 9 assists, showing that he can impact the game in other ways than scoring.

The Wizards have now fallen to 1-6 on the season as the Knicks improved to 4-3, looking to extend their win streak to 3 in a competitive matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves taking place Wednesday night.