The Dallas Mavericks have fired Jason Kidd as head coach just weeks after installing Masai Ujiri as their new team president, according to ESPN.
Kidd coached the Mavericks for five seasons, taking them to two conference finals and an NBA Finals. Last season was a wash as Kyrie Irving spent the year rehabbing his torn ACL and Anthony Davis was traded. If Copper Flagg didn’t fall into their laps this franchise would still be a rudderless ship lost at sea after Luka Dončić was traded.
But now there’s at least some hope moving forward. Ujiri is seen as a symbol of stability and whoever he hires as his new coach has some nice stuff to work with, namely Flagg and this year’s No. 9 overall draft pick.
Kidd has had his critics everywhere he has coached, but it’s tough to argue with the success he had with the Mavericks. To this day, nobody has really reported how much he had to do with trading Dončić, if he even had any say at all. He swears he was as blindsided as everyone else.
Either way, you almost have to get rid of everyone who was in a position of leadership when that trade went down just to get an actual fresh start. Nico Harrison was fired and now Kidd is gone. It’s officially a new day in Dallas.
