Jason Kidd, Nico Harrison Officially Announced as Mavericks Head Coach, GM
The Dallas Mavericks officially announced the hirings of new head coach Jason Kidd and general manager Nico Harrison on Monday afternoon.
Kidd released a statement of his own on Twitter, in part thanking the Los Angeles Lakers for the past two seasons while he served as an assistant coach under Frank Vogel and won a title in 2019-20.
Kidd, 48, brings experience both as a Hall of Fame point guard and a head coach. He spent the 2013-14 season leading the Brooklyn Nets, going 44-38 with the team and leading it to a playoff berth, before spending parts of the next four seasons coaching the Milwaukee Bucks.
Under Kidd, the Bucks went 139-152 and made two playoff appearances. He was fired midway through the 2017-18 campaign, and Milwaukee has since been a perennial contender in the Eastern Conference under Mike Budenholzer.
The Mavericks will be hoping Kidd—who won a title as a player with Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas—can maximize the career of superstar Luka Doncic. But much of his ability to do so will come down to Harrison's ability to build a true contender around the 2018-19 Rookie of the Year.
The former Nike executive may not be a familiar name to many outside of NBA circles, but as Tim Cato of The Athletic noted, Harrison has "certain experiences that easily transfer to the general manager role to which he’s been hired: his building and maintaining of player relationships, his history of contract negotiations, his widely respected reputation throughout the league and his preestablished connection with Doncic."
Doncic is one of Jordan Brand's signature athletes, hence his familiarity with Harrison.
But can Harrison put another star (or two) around Doncic? The Kristaps Porzingis pairing, to this point, has not been particularly fruitful. Doncic is likely to sign a supermax contract extension with the Mavs this summer, but the next contract is the one Dallas will be focused on.
If the Mavs don't build a consistent title contender around Doncic, will he stick around? Making sure he has a reason to is the primary job of Kidd and Harrison going forward.
