The Dallas Mavericks are finalizing a deal to make Hall of Fame point guard Jason Kidd the franchise’s new head coach, sources told ESPN on Thursday.
Dissidents proprietor Mark Cuban is additionally near hiring long-term Nike executive Nico Harrison to a front-office leadership position, sources said. Cuban and Harrison, who is near Kidd, have had top to depth discussions about the coaching candidates and identified Kidd as the target, sources said.
Sources said that Kidd has started the beginning phases of gathering an coaching staff.
The Mavs are optimistic that VP of basketball operations Michael Finley will stay with the establishment and work close by Harrison, sources said.
Harrison, who has been sought after by different teams for front-office roles, has grounded connections with players all through the NBA stemming from his twenty years with Nike. He has a strong relationship with Luka Doncic, having played an instrumental role in the Mavs star moving from Nike to the Jordan brand in the fall of 2019.
Kidd, who had two stints with the Mavericks during his playing career and starred in the 2010-11 championship team, has had the help of Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki and other people who have been advising Cuban. Nowitzki as of late got back to the franchise as a special advisor to assist Cuban in the searches for new lead basketball executive and head coach in the wake of the takeoffs of Donnie Nelson and Rick Carlisle.
Carlisle, who resigned after a 13-season residency in Dallas, offered a unsolicited endorsement of Kidd as his replacement.
“My hope is that Jason Kidd will be the next coach of the Mavs because he and Luka have so many things in common as players,” Carlisle told ESPN on Thursday after agreeing to become the Indiana Pacers’ head coach. “I just think that it would be a great situation for Luka, and I think it would be an amazing situation for Jason. I’m the only person on the planet that’s coached both of those guys and that knows about all of their special qualities as basketball players. To me, that just would be a great marriage, but that’s just an opinion.”
Kidd has a career record of 183-190 as a head coach. He trained the Brooklyn Nets in 2013-14 and the Milwaukee Bucks from 2014-15 to 2017-18. Kidd, who has spent the previous two seasons as an associate mentor with the Los Angeles Lakers, has a 9-15 vocation season finisher record, progressing to the second round in his solitary season with the Nets.
Mavs assistant coach Jamahl Mosley, who has an especially strong relationship with Doncic, is among the other coaching candidates who have been thought of.
Kidd, 48, a 10-time All-Star who won five assists titles, was drafted by Dallas with the No. 2 in general pick in 1994. He was exchanged to the Phoenix Suns in December 1996 and got back to Dallas in February 2008 after spells with the Suns and afterward New Jersey Nets.
Kidd went through five seasons with the Mavs during his second stint in Dallas, forging strong relationships with Cuban and a few other people who stay in the Dallas front office and care staff.
Kidd’s takeoff from Dallas in the 2012 offseason was acrimonious with Cuban – Kidd altered his perspective in the wake of agreeing to re-sign with the Mavs and instead joined the New York Knicks in free agency – however they some time in the past streamlined any bad sentiments coming from that exit.
Finley, a two-time All-Star for the Mavs who initially showed up in Dallas as a feature of the 1996 Kidd trade, has been a chief with the franchise for the past seven seasons, filling in as VP of b-ball tasks the previous three. Sources said that Finley, as Nowitzki, strongly lobbied to enlist Kidd as coach.