It looks like the Dallas Mavericks are going One Direction. The band, not literally. If the rumors are to be believed, it’s no longer about trading maybe just Anthony Davis for a healthy defender or find a backup point guard till Kyrie Irving can return. With Nico Harrison’s dismissal, the Mavs are apparently planning an entire overhaul while they’re still 3-9 into the season. It’s bold, it’s risky, it’s a little too radical. For the general observer like a certain retired NBA star, this is a ‘mistake.’

That’s how Eddie A. Johnson described it. The Phoenix Suns player-turned-commentator is very optimistic about the Phoenix Suns’ rebuild that began with the firing of Mike Budenholzer last season. But that was when the Durant-Beal-Book combination without a point guard was experiemented with and contracts were up. What the Mavericks are planning is a little too extreme.

According to SI’s Chris Mannix, “radical roster changes have already been discussed by Dallas’s new brain trust. Big changes could be coming to Big D.”

Johnson responded to that news with a tweet of his own. “That’s a mistake to do it so soon. They are better than what people think.”

Actually not many believe that the combination of Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, and Cooper Flagg is bad at all. It has just not been given a fair shot since the spate of very serious injuries. While Klay is back, the Mavs haven’t maximized Flagg’s potential, most especially by playing the teen forward in the point guard position.

Rebuilding around Flagg sounds okay on paper, but a few are sad that AD and Kyrie along with other injured players will not get a fair chance in Dallas or a worthy trade if they’re sent while injured.

The current roster not getting a fair shot is seemingly Johnson’s concern. He’s not protesting the other huge development in Dallas.

Mark Cuban could take Eddie A. Johnson’s advice instead

The other thing Chris Mannix reported was Mark Cuban’s potential return. While he is a minority stakeholder after selling the Mavericks to Patrick Dumont and the Adelson families, he reportedly still holds a significant quarter of the team and got a say. Nico Harrison apparently prevented that.

The former GM allegedly “exiled” Cuban out of basketball operations. Trading Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis was the last straw. Insiders claim that Cuban was frustrated and felt Harrison’s trade set the franchise back years. It’s not confirmed, but it’s rumored that Cuban made a case to Dumont that Harrison was leading the franchise in the wrong direction. That led to Nico’s firing.

Cuban’s reportedly back in the Mavs basketball operations and is going to undo Harrison’s decisions. But how he’d do that is a whole other math. The Mavs have injured players and very little draft options. They’re in the unenviable position of playing aging veterans now and tank or wait for future opportunities to regain assets. Any short term trade now would be very costly.

Maybe the solution is with Eddie A. Johnson too. Johnson’s a lot about the player voice, especially when it came to Phoenix Suns. He advocated for players to be involved in coaching decisions. Maybe the Mavericks could similar rely on the veterans they have now to change that 3-9 start before they go from zero to thousand.