<\/p>\n
Dallas Mavericks team president Masai Ujiri speaks about coach Jason Kidd\u2019s departure during a press conference at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Wednesday, May 20, 2026.<\/p>\n
Juan Figueroa\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Unless my RSVP to the new head coach\u2019s opening presser got lost in the mail, it looks as if the\u00a0Mavs<\/a> will greet their lottery pick Tuesday without the guy who should have the greatest impact on the kid\u2019s immediate future. Even for an era when the position has been downgraded to the point that you probably can\u2019t name a half-dozen NBA coaches, this level of indifference seems a little over the top.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bill Parcells liked to say if he\u2019s cooking dinner, he should at least get to shop for the groceries.\u00a0<\/p>\n Masai Ujiri is not only doing all the shopping, he\u2019s ordering in.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n For the record, I don\u2019t question Ujiri\u2019s status as the basketball boss. Given his success in Denver and Toronto, his, uh, deliberate approach may turn out fine. It\u2019s just that, as top-down approaches go, this feels like Eddie the Eagle on the down-ramp at the \u201988 Olympics.\u00a0<\/p>\n Here\u2019s hoping the new coach, whoever that might be, is good at learning on the fly.\u00a0<\/p>\n Until then, we\u2019re forced to take it on faith that the Mavs will get everything right even as they go into the draft as one of only two organizations without a head coach. Portland is the other. From all reports, the Blazers and Mavs may be in a tug of war for Micah Nori, a Minnesota assistant<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n God help the Mavs if Nori\u2019s their man, and they lose him to the likes of Portland.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Anyway, the problem with taking the Mavs on faith is that we\u2019ve lost ours.\u00a0<\/p>\n READ MORE: Final NBA mock draft: Who will Mavericks select with three picks this year?<\/a><\/p>\n Here in Dallas, where, historically speaking, the local NBA franchise wouldn\u2019t know a Hall of Fame point guard from a harp seal, we\u2019ve endured all kinds of losses over the last half century or so. Even when the Mavs got it right, they didn\u2019t know what to do next. No sooner did they win their only title than they decided it was a one-and-done and blew it up. Then, when they got close again a couple years ago, down it went again, like the old Sheraton out in Arlington<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dallas Mavericks CEO Rick Welts (from left), team president\u00a0Masai Ujiri and general manager Mike Schmitz attended the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery on May 10, 2026 at Navy Pier Festival Hall in Chicago, Illinois.<\/p>\n Brandon Colston\/Dallas Mavericks<\/p>\n The Mavs don\u2019t let success go to their heads. They let it walk out the door.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The result of all this is a civic case of PTND.\u00a0<\/p>\n Post-traumatic Nico disorder.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nico Harrison turned out to be something less than the yes-man Mark Cuban figured. He kept everything close to the vest. Apparently made deals with little to no input from his coach, Jason Kidd. Remember Christian Wood? Gave up a first to get him, and Kidd was so thrilled, he sometimes went days without calling Wood\u2019s name or number.\u00a0<\/p>\n Of course, that\u2019s nothing compared with Nico letting his head coach in on the Luka Doncic deal only at \u201cthe 11th hour,\u201d as Kidd famously put it<\/a>. Now, as previously noted in this space, Kidd still could have done more to nix the deal. Should have threatened to quit. Might not have stopped it, but at least he wouldn’t be linked to the worst decision in franchise history<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nico operated in the loneliest of vacuums. When our Mike Curtis wrote a report making the rounds, Nico texted with not a little disdain that nothing accurate gets out that doesn\u2019t come directly from him. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, until you learn that one of the things he\u2019s tinkering with down in the bunker is trading the organization’s greatest talent ever for a heap six years older on a bad set of tires.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Given the Mavs\u2019 recent front-office history and the nature of our disorder, you can see why the fact that Ujiri seems just as mysterious might make us, well, nuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n Look, no one\u2019s asking for a blueprint, but it\u2019s been a month since Ujiri let Kidd go<\/a>. The NBA Finals have come and gone. New York has already cleaned up from the parade, not that you could tell. Anyone Ujiri needed to talk to has nothing but time to do so. I realize he took at least a month on each of his last two hires in Toronto, but in neither of those cases did he wait until after the draft to name his man.\u00a0<\/p>\n Frankly, it seems like something Jerry Jones would do. Remember when he said any one of 500 coaches could have won those Super Bowls? He\u2019s still whittling down his list, apparently.\u00a0<\/p>\n This close to Tuesday\u2019s draft, I didn\u2019t figure on writing about the fact that the Mavs would still be without a coach. I wanted to write about what they should do with the ninth pick. Even asked Kidd near the end of the season what he looked for in a point guard, back when it looked like they might be in the sweet spot for one.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now there\u2019s even talk that they\u2019ve slid just far enough to make them consider Aday Mara, the 7-3 center from Spain by way of Michigan. Might be just the thing to counter Victor Wembanyama.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n