Despite Kidd having 4 years and $40M left on his deal, new team president Masai Ujiri is cleaning house to build around Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg. Yankee Scores reports…
Coach Jason Kidd will not continue his tenure with the Dallas Mavericks in the position of the head coach after five seasons, with this reportedly being a mutual decision between the two parties.
Kidd’s contract has four more years left, with the salary of more than $40 million, sources say. Mavericks’ governor Patrick Dumont, who renewed Kidd’s contract amid the team’s NBA Finals appearance in 2024 and again before the start of the recent season after rejecting the request of the New York Knicks to interview Kidd, gave new president Masai Ujiri the power to make a decision about the coach’s future in the franchise.
Ujiri Cleans the House
“As we evaluate the future of our basketball program, we believe this is the right moment for a new direction for our team,” Ujiri said in a statement. “We have high expectations for this franchise and a responsibility to build a basketball organization capable of sustained championship contention.
“We will conduct a thorough, disciplined search for our next head coach and continue to evaluate our entire basketball operations staff to ensure we compete at the standard Mavs fans expect and deserve.”
More Exits
On Tuesday, the Mavericks have also parted ways with a number of basketball operations personnel, sources say. Assistant general manager Matt Riccardi, who worked with the interim GM Michael Finley after Harrison’s firing, is among those dismissed. The status of Finley with the Mavericks is unclear at the moment.
It appears that Kidd wanted to take the president of basketball operations position after Harrison’s firing in November, but Dumont informed Kidd months ago that he will not consider Kidd for such position in the franchise.
Kidd was reportedly excluded from the decision-making process that resulted in Ujiri joining the team, sources say.
During Ujiri’s press conference on May 5, the newly-appointed president did not express any commitment regarding Kidd’s future as the head coach, although he said that in his previous work running franchises, he kept George Karl in Denver and Dwane Casey in Toronto after taking up the position of the top basketball executive in both cases.
“He’s done a great job, but we are going to look at this thing from head to toe,” Ujiri said. “That’s the right way to look at an organization and evaluate in every single way we can.”
Overall, Kidd has accumulated a balanced 205-205 record as head coach of the Mavericks. Dallas advanced to the 2022 Western Conference finals and the 2024 NBA Finals with Kidd as their coach, going 22-18 in the postseason.
The Post-Luka Collapse
After the Finals run, just a few months later, the Mavericks shocked everyone by trading their franchise player, Luka Doncic, to the Los Angeles Lakers for an Anthony Davis-led package in February 2025. This move backfired on them, leading to Kidd being fired eight months later.
When asked about the trade, Kidd stated that he did not know about the deal until “the 11th hour.” Kidd reiterated this claim in early April after minority owner Mark Cuban spoke on a podcast saying that Kidd was directly responsible for the trade. It is no secret that Kidd was frustrated with Doncic’s frequent issues with conditioning.
However, Doncic was the engine that helped the Mavericks win. While Kidd was their head coach, Dallas had a record of 136-87 with Doncic and 69-118 without Doncic. This included the 26-56 mark that the Mavericks posted last season after trading the injury-prone Davis to the Washington Wizards in a deal designed to clear up cap space for rebuilding around Cooper Flagg, the number one draft choice and Rookie of the Year.
The Legacy of a Mavs Legend
Drafted by the Mavericks in 1994, Kidd is a Hall of Fame point guard who played a key part in helping Dallas win their only NBA championship in 2011 on his second stint with the team.
In total, Kidd has a 388-395 record as a head coach, starting out as a coach in 2013 immediately following his retirement as a player with the Brooklyn Nets. He also coached the Milwaukee Bucks from 2014 to 2018.
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