The AAU culture that has permeated all levels of basketball has now cracked the top tier of NBA front offices.
According to ESPN, the Dallas Mavericks are going to bring in Jason Kidd to replace Rick Carlisle to be the head coach, and a former Nike executive to replace Donnie Nelson to be their general manager.
The Mavs may not win another playoff game, but their Nike swag will be second only to the University of Oregon.
The new GM and president of basketball operations, Nico Harrison, has reportedly been pursued by NBA teams before, and now is ready to enter a front office position.
Translation: The new check will have more zeroes than the old check.
Harrison is one of these long time basketball guys who knows everybody who has ever touched a basketball. He is not a Sam Presti guy, the Oklahoma City Thunder GM who graduated from the University of the San Antonio Spurs.
Harrison is a “relationship guy,” who has positive ties with NBA agents that could potentially result in the one thing this franchise has never been able to do and that is to secure top-tier free agents.
Harrison is one of the reasons why Mavs forward Luka Doncic became a “Nike guy.”
These major moves were both endorsed by the Mavericks new advisor, Dirk Nowitzki. Carlisle also told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon that he thought Kidd would be a good coach for Luka Doncic.
This all looks like the frat bro who hit it big and is hiring his old frat bros from college to help run his new company that literally cannot lose money.
These moves could all blow up, and there will be no real consequences to any of the major players involved. All of these guys are eagerly taking Mark Cuban’s money, who bought an NBA team to run it and hang out with NBA guys.
Dirk and Kidd were teammates when they won the NBA title with the Mavs in 2011. They’re buddies.
Kidd and Cuban are buddies.
The Mavs are talking to former point guard J.J. Barea about joining the team as an assistant coach. Again, they’re buddies.
And former Mavs guard and current University of Arizona assistant coach Jason Terry is talking to Kidd about coming here, too.
Again. They’re buddies.
You can almost hear the high fives and see the bro hugs as the contracts were signed.
This should open the door to the Mavs making Ian Mahinmi, DeShawn Stevenson and Roddy Beaubois assistants as well.
Kidd is the safest of safe moves.
As a player, he was the brilliant, God-made point guard. Few players of his era understood the game any better, and he made every single teammate better.
As a coach, he has been blah.
He coached the Brooklyn Nets for one season, and the Milwaukee Bucks for four.
He has a career record of 183-190, and been to the playoffs three times. The Nets won their first playoff series under Kidd in 2014, and he did not win a series thereafter.
As the case with any NBA coach, check the rosters.
Kidd did OK with an old Nets roster, and he had the Bucks at the start of the Giannis Antetokounmpo-Khris Middleton era.
So far as a coach, Kidd looks like your standard NBA retread coach. Not bad. Not great.
The Mavs hired Kidd because Dirk and Cuban like him, and the owner thinks this is the best guy to advance Luka Doncic.
Harrison was hired because he and Luka have a relationship, and this should give the Mavs the best chance to keep him here through the 3045-46 season.
Luka is expected to sign the supermax extension in August — that’s a five-year, $201 million contract
And, who knows, maybe Harrison can actually climb Mt. Everest blindfolded and attract a real free agent here.
Neither Harrison nor Kidd are bad hires. They’re buddy hires.
The Mavs are the bros getting back together to run a basketball team that happens to be in the NBA with one of the best players in the world.
Enjoy the frat party.