Mavs news: Dallas on the verge of hiring Jason Kidd as new head coach

Jason Kidd, who helped the Mavs win their only NBA title as the team's point guard in 2011, is very close to becoming the new head coach for Luka Doncic.

Jason Kidd, who helped the Dallas Mavericks win their only NBA championship as the team's point guard in 2011, is very close to becoming the new head coach of the Mavs and Luka Doncic, according to reports from ESPN journalists Adrian Wojnarowski and Tim MacMahon.

The Dallas Mavericks are closing in on the hiring a new GM and Jason Kidd has emerged as a strong frontrunner to be hired as head coach, sources tell @espn_macmahon and me.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 24, 2021

Jason Kidd is one of the great point guards of the past 30 years. He established himself as an elite NBA point guard and remained a force in the league for more than a decade. He guided the then-New Jersey Nets to consecutive NBA Finals appearances in 2002 and 2003. He then moved to the Mavs in 2008 and became one of the players who helped the franchise finally win its first NBA championship in 2011 after a series of bitter postseason failures.

Interestingly enough, Kidd helped the Mavs win the 2011 title under then-coach Rick Carlisle. Earlier on Thursday, Carlisle signed a deal to become the coach of the Indiana Pacers, a position he had held nearly two decades ago. Kidd could soon reunite with Dallas, though if a deal is reached, this will be his first go-round as the team's head coach.

Jason Kidd previously coached the Brooklyn Nets and the Milwaukee Bucks before becoming an assistant to Frank Vogel with the Lakers the past few years. Kidd's tenure with the Bucks was especially turbulent. He engineered a power play to push out Bucks coach Larry Drew. He went from the Nets to Milwaukee in a trade for future draft picks.

This move to the Mavs, if approved, will not be a hostile takeover. Kidd and Dallas owner Mark Cuban get along well. If Kidd does become the new coach in Big D, a general manager suitable to Kidd's preferences will arrive at the same time.

All of this activity in Dallas occurred mere weeks after an explosive report from Tim Cato and Sam Amick of The Athletic which detailed the extensive dysfunction in the upper reaches of the Mavs' front office. Longtime executive Donnie Nelson soon left, and then Carlisle stepped away. The NBA community — knowing that Kidd has not been a high-level head coach — will question if he can earn Luka Doncic's trust in Dallas and lead the Mavericks to a higher level in the near future.