DHJ Quick Take: Masai Ujiri Cuts Ties with Jason Kidd to Trigger Total Mavericks Reset
- Ujiri Owns the Head Coaching Ouster: Mavericks President Masai Ujiri confirmed the decision to fire Jason Kidd after five seasons was entirely his own, shielding the roster from accountability while launching a sweeping organizational review.
- The Generational Shift to Cooper Flagg: Signaling the end of win-now urgency, Ujiri declared that all future front office decisions will center strictly on the developmental timeline of 19-year-old rookie Cooper Flagg, firmly moving the franchise past the shadow of the February 2025 Luka Dončić trade.
- Mike Schmitz Elevated in Front Office Overhaul: Ujiri announced a leaner executive structure, confirming that former Portland executive and international scouting ace Mike Schmitz will serve as general manager to co-lead basketball operations. Executive Matt Riccardi will not return, while Michael Finley’s future role remains under discussion.
- Kyrie Irving’s Co-Existence High on Radar: Despite Kidd’s departure, Ujiri expressed “huge curiosity” regarding how veteran star Kyrie Irving fits into the new developmental framework, confirming regular dialogue with the guard to ensure he is put in a position to succeed.
- Open Search Demands Modern Leadership: Emphasizing alignment ahead of the June 23 NBA Draft, Ujiri outlined an open search for a creative, competitive coach who will collaborate on personnel but leave the heavy lifting of roster construction to the front office.
DALLAS — Masai Ujiri made clear Wednesday that parting ways with Jason Kidd was his decision in part of a broader reset of the Dallas Mavericks as they build around Cooper Flagg.
Ujiri said the coaching change is one piece of a broader review, and there is no timeline they will follow to complete the search for the right next head coach.
“This decision is on me,” Ujiri said. “I don’t want to put that on any player in any way, and nobody else in this organization.”
Kidd took the Mavericks’ head coaching job on June 28, 2021, replacing Rick Carlisle and coming back to the franchise where he won a title as a player in 2011. He finished his Dallas run at 205-205 in the regular season and 22-18 in the playoffs across five years, with two Western Conference Finals trips and a 2024 NBA Finals appearance.
Building Around Cooper Flagg
The path ahead, Ujiri said, runs through 19-year-old Cooper Flagg. Dallas landed the No. 9 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, but owes Charlotte its 2027 first-round pick unless it lands in the top two, and the next time the franchise controls its own first outright is 2031.
“Every decision we are going to make here is going to be future-based,” Ujiri said. “We have a 19-year-old generational player on our roster, and we have to think that way. We’re not going to make decisions based on winning today. I don’t think that would make sense for the organization.”
The approach marks a shift from the win-now urgency of the Luka Dončić era and the Dončić-Kyrie Irving pairing acquired at the 2023 trade deadline. Additionally, Ujiri said he spent the past two weeks reviewing the basketball operation from medical staff to scouting to player development before deciding on the coaching change.
“For me, it was really thinking about the future of this team, the structure, taking a lot of information of some of the things that were beneficial to build a team and being transparent with everybody,” Ujiri said. “I think a new slate was a good way to look at this because I feel sometimes in this organization we need a kind of clarity in where we’re going, rather than sometimes lots of things in the mix.”
Moving Past the Luka Dončić Trade
Ujiri said the February 2025 trade that sent Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers played no role in the decision. He also said a report that Kidd had sought the team president role did not factor in.
“I’ve said it and I’ve made it very clear, it’s something that we have to find healing and move from, and that’s my job,” Ujiri said of the Dončić trade. “I have to be that transition from where we are as an organization, as fans, as media, as anything you want. We have to figure out a way to slowly move on from this. I have to hold myself accountable for doing this.”
Kidd led Dallas to a 52-30 record in 2021-22, highlighted by a Game 7 win over the 64-win Phoenix Suns in the second round, before the team made its 2024 Finals run against Boston following a roster reshape that added P.J. Washington, Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II. The Mavericks went 39-43 in 2024-25 and 26-56 this past season.
An Open Coaching Search
Ujiri said the coaching search has not begun in earnest. He has not contacted any candidates, calling it disrespectful to do so before the move was finalized, and declined to set a timeline.
“It’s an open search,” Ujiri said. “It just happened that at that time, we thought these were the best candidates. One of them was in-house, which was Nick Nurse, and the other was first time, Darko. Our minds are very open. We’re going to look everywhere. No stone, every stone unturned, and we will really, really look at what’s best for this organization.”
Ujiri hired Nick Nurse and Darko Rajaković as first-time NBA head coaches during his tenure in Toronto. He said the next Mavericks coach will be evaluated on leadership, vision, creativity, player communication and competitiveness.
“It’s a fight,” Ujiri said of the current NBA landscape. “We have to learn in here that it’s not in here anymore. I’m going to make that clear and clean and how we go. The fight is out there. The fight is with those 29 other teams. That’s where we’re trying to be playing today. We’re trying to kick their butts the same way they are kicking our butts.”
Ujiri credited Kidd with one of the season’s most significant coaching decisions, calling the choice to put the ball in Flagg’s hands as a rookie “one of the biggest risks” and “an incredible decision.”
Irving’s fit alongside Flagg under a new coaching staff will be central to the search. Ujiri said he has remained in contact with the guard and acknowledged Irving’s close relationship with Kidd.
“Kevin Durant once told me that there’s only one Kyrie walking around in the world,” Ujiri said. “I think we have to figure out a way of how Kyrie fits with our program. I’ve had those conversations with Kyrie up till yesterday. I think Kyrie will fit. But as I said before, there’s a huge curiosity in our minds to see him.”
Ujiri said his focus is on setting Irving up to thrive in whatever the next iteration of the roster looks like.
“My goal is to put him in a place where he’s successful,” Ujiri said.
Ujiri has kept Flagg and Irving informed, but conversations with the star players carried no weight in the decision.
Reshaping the Front Office
Matt Riccardi will not be back in the front office, Ujiri confirmed, a decision he attributed to avoiding redundancy rather than any issue with Riccardi’s work, particularly around the Anthony Davis trade. Michael Finley, a longtime executive with the franchise, is still in talks with Ujiri about what his role will look like going forward.
General manager Mike Schmitz, hired from the Portland Trail Blazers, will lead the basketball operations group alongside Ujiri. The two have worked together for years on the international scouting circuit.
“Mike Schmitz is an incredible hire for us,” Ujiri said. “I appreciate Portland letting us have him. Not only in his work there, but I’ve worked with him, how many years in this league, scouring, scouting the whole world. Whether it’s in Uganda or Russia or Serbia or South America, we’ve been all over the world together.”
Schmitz’s basketball mind, work ethic, and approach to people fit the values Ujiri wants in the front office.
“For me, it was an incredible fit, because you have to build that in your front office, whether it’s values, whether it’s loyalty, whether it’s treating our staff with respect and setting a tone,” Ujiri said. “Mike has been everything. He is the GM of the Dallas Mavericks and we’re going forward to win in this organization, and super aligned, super, super happy having him in this organization.”
Ujiri outlined a collaborative model between the coaching staff and the front office for personnel decisions. Given that the NBA Draft is scheduled to begin on June 23, collaborating with the next head coach would require completing the hiring process in time before the selection is made.
“I think they should take part in how we select these players because at the end of the day, they are the ones coaching these guys,” Ujiri said. “We are the ones that do all the work with the background and go and really search on the type of players that we’re going to work with. It’s not the coach’s job. He’s focused on the games and winning games.”
When explaining the thought process, Ujiri detailed how that input typically takes shape when the front office brings options to the staff.
“I think big decisions, players you bring, types of players you bring, their style of play, sometimes their personalities, we have to even bring those in front of coaches to say, ‘Hey, here is all the information about this player,'” Ujiri said. “This is the kind of player he is or the kind of person or all the necessary information. So yeah, coach plays a part, but we do the heavy lifting with this.”
A Clean Slate Going Forward
Several of Kidd’s assistants will remain through the transition. The long-term composition of the staff will be determined by the next head coach.
Ujiri asked for patience as the organization works to align all departments around a single vision and pledged to communicate openly with fans and the media.
“We have this player here,” Ujiri said. “We’re looking for all of that in a head coach. We just needed a clean slate to go forward.”
He ended with the line, which he said would guide every decision from here.
“We have a 19-year-old on this team that can take us somewhere great,” Ujiri said. “We have to think that way.”
More Mavericks Coverage on Dallas Hoops Journal
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- Dallas Mavericks To Select 9th Overall In 2026 NBA Draft, Mike Schmitz ‘Very Confident’ In Class Depth
- Dallas Mavericks Name Mike Schmitz General Manager Under President Masai Ujiri
- ‘I Hope To Bring Calm’: Masai Ujiri Lays Out Vision For Cooper Flagg’s Dallas Mavericks
- ‘It Means Everything’: Dallas Mavericks Star Cooper Flagg Reflects On NBA Rookie Of The Year Award
- Cooper Flagg Wins NBA Rookie Of The Year, Joins Jason Kidd And Luka Dončić In Dallas Mavericks History
