Dallas Mavericks close to bringing in new regime
A hectic offseason for the front office only got busier in Dallas Thursday afternoon. The Dallas Mavericks are working towards bringing in Nico Harrison, the long-time Nike executive, to a front-office leadership role. And the organization is confident that the vice president of basketball operations, Michael Finley, will remain with the Mavericks after hiring Harrison, […]
A hectic offseason for the front office only got busier in Dallas Thursday afternoon.
The Dallas Mavericks are working towards bringing in Nico Harrison, the long-time Nike executive, to a front-office leadership role. And the organization is confident that the vice president of basketball operations, Michael Finley, will remain with the Mavericks after hiring Harrison, according to ESPN's Tim MacMahon and Adrian Wojnarowski.
Harrison has been pursued by multiple NBA teams and is well connected throughout the league, according to ESPN's report.
The good news for Mavericks fans is that he also has a great relationship with Luka Doncic. He reportedly played an instrumental role in Doncic's shift from Nike to Jordan earlier in his career.
News of the negotiations echoed around the league and drew excitement from current NBA players. One of the most prominent being Jared Dudley, who last played for the Los Angeles Lakers.
"Many teams have tried to land Nico," Dudley wrote on Twitter. "If Dallas could land him that's a big play."
The first move for this tentative new regime is to seriously consider Jason Kidd as the next head coach of the Dallas Mavericks.
When Rick Carlisle departed for a job with the Indiana Pacers Thursday morning, he endorsed the hiring of Kidd – a player Carlisle coached when he won a championship in 2011.
"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 said to ESPN. "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."
However, it's been widely reported that the Mavericks and Kidd are "progressing in talks" to make him the franchise's new head coach. The busy front office summer finally appears to be nearing its end.
Dallas landed Harrison, Kidd and retained Finley. Now all signs point to an active summer for the organization in free agency, as it attempts to build towards NBA championship contention.
Related Mavericks reading:
"Former Mavs coach Rick Carlisle endorses Jason Kidd as next Mavericks head coach."
"Dallas' front office stability is gone, where do the Mavericks go from here?"
Feature image via Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports.
