Fans of the Dallas Mavericks have been through enough at this point. Nine months removed from playing in the NBA Finals, the Mavs traded the star player that led them to that stage (Luka Dončić), lost their second best player to a torn ACL (Kyrie Irving) recently, which might have him out for a lot of next season as well, and have lost all the other key contributors (P.J. Washington, Dereck Lively, Daniel Gafford) in that run to injuries as well.
And that's without mentioning that the prized jewel of the Dončić deal, Anthony Davis, didn't even finish his debut game with the franchise before he got hurt, and he could be looking at an absence for what's left of the season also.
They could certainly use some reassurance that they still have a talented team and a good coaching staff. Though, and this might just be me, I don't think the player at the center of the trade that sent their franchise player that was beloved all over the city and didn't want to leave should be the one sending that message.
The Dallas Mavericks are a lose-lose situation for Anthony Davis
Just by being involved in this deal, Davis is put in a losing situation. He can't ignore fans looking at him play and wishing they had someone else. The right thing to do is remain positive and lead the Mavericks to winning a championship. The problem is that it comes across as forced, and he can say all the right things, stay in shape and be a good teammate, but the conversation will always be "he's not Luka". He can say "I'm top 75 of all-time" all he wants, and while it's true, he was traded for someone that is a top 30 talent of all-time.
He can say that the Mavs traded a superstar for a superstar, but Luka is an offense onto himself while Davis, as great as he is, he has 11 straight seasons averaging at least 24 points, 8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game and is elite come playoff time, but struggles to stay healthy. The old adage is "the best ability is availability", and Davis doesn't have that one: in 13 seasons, he's only played at least 65 games in five seasons, and four of those were in his first six seasons. That was encapsulated in his first game with Dallas, where he had a monster stat line of 26 points, 16 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 blocks on 10-of-18 field goal shooting, but only played 30 minutes before exiting with an abductor strain.
If he were playing and doing well, these comments wouldn't come off so negatively. Nico Harrison made this move because he believes "defense wins championships", with Davis making them a more formidable team in the short term. If Davis was keeping Dallas at a winning pace, his reassuring comments might even be embraced. But, with them coming with him in street clothes, it just further proves why Dallas fans are so down. He didn't sign up for this. The situation is certainly not his fault (in spite of injuries). He's saying and doing all the right things. But if even Mark Cuban comes out and says he wouldn't have traded Luka for Davis, there's no amount of consoling Davis can do to remedy the situation.