NBA Insider Marc Stein On The Dallas Mavericks’ GM Search

NBA Insider Marc Stein On The Dallas Mavericks’ GM Search

our national NBA insider Mark Stein who joins us here on our program today. You can always dial at the Stein line. The goat at the Stein Line. Where are we when it comes to the individual or individuals who are going to be leading all of this in terms of what the next couple months looks like and where the Mavericks go for from here when it comes to their GM search? Yeah, look, all signs point to the current structure being the structure through the deadline and probably through the season, through the rest of the season. Patrick, I wrote this on I want to say it was November 20th that if you Oh, wow. Look, look at Tanner Kevin Gray. Just read it. Ready? You Yeah. Yeah. I was going to Yeah. Uh, of course, Patrick De saying um or excuse me, Mark Stein Yes. Yes. I’m screing Mark Stein writing. Uh, quote, “The Mavericks, meanwhile, have not yet begun a formal search for the successor to general manager Nico Harrison, and the distinct vibe I get is that they are not going to be in a rush to do so.” End quote. After listening for so long to Harrison and Harrison alone, there’s a distinct sense in Mavsand that operating owner Patrick Dumont prefers the committee approach that is in place now.” End quote. Yeah. So, that was November 20th. My sense is nothing has changed. You have Matt Ricardi and Michael Finley as the co-GMs to take the calls, make the calls, interact with other teams. Jason Kidd obviously has a strong level of input as the most experienced person within the organization, the guy who has the longest contract in the building now after back-to-back extensions in the past two off seasons. And then Mark Cuban has been brought back in an advisory capacity. Mark Cuban is invited to various meetings that this group has to lodge his input, opinion, and and you know, make his voice heard. And I do think that because until the firing of Nico Harrison 11 games into the season, Patrick Damont was really only listening to one person, he does, at least in the short term, seem to like this approach of listening and talking to as many people as he can and forming the formulating their plan based on this flurry of recommendations. So, there is still going to be a formal GM search, but the likelihood is at this point, barring some unexpected change, that it waits till after the season. So my question next would be then, how empowered are Matt Ricardi and Michael Finley to steer the course in the direction of these next couple of months with respect to potentially moving uh primarily Anthony Davis among others. Have they been empowered to go ahead and be able to make such moves if those opportunities arise for this team? Well, they’re the ones, you know, they’re the front-facing guys. They’re the ones interacting with all the teams, but Patrick Dumont will ultimately be the one who’s casting the deciding vote. Obviously, the recommendations, Matt Ricardi and Michael Finley are the ones talking to these teams. Wherever the recommendation comes from, everyone’s going to weigh in on it, weigh in on it as a group. And you know, obviously they’re, you know, two of only four or five guys at the table right now. So, I mean, I think they have the ability to present any idea they wish, but I don’t think any one person can say, “We’re doing this. They’re going to go with this group approach.” But it’s not like they I don’t know that that’s dramatically different than it was because even Nico Harrison had to get Patrick Dumont’s sign off on on major things which obviously that’s what happened on the day we don’t like to talk about in February. if it’s, you know, if it’s a minor move. I mean, I would imagine they’re consulting Patrick on everything, even minor moves at this point, given everything that’s happened. But there’s obviously a difference between, you know, signing a two-way, signing a 10day, and trading Anthony Davis. I mean, there are scales of moves. I I I don’t want to jump the gun too much, but I want to ask Mark, I want to ask you the question that a lot of Mavs fans are talking about, and Jacob just asked this in the chat as well. Um, a lot of Mavs fans believe, I don’t I don’t think this is reported anywhere. I think it’s just everyone kind of has like a Spidey sense that because Jason Kid is part of this kind of like advisory decision-making group panel kind of thing. Um, Mavs fans are kind of believing that, okay, does that mean that JK wants to be the GM? Does that mean that JK is going to be the J? Uh, the the GM, the JM, the JM, right? That’s a pretty cool nickname, actually. I kind of hopes he becomes the GM just so that I can call him JM. Um, but do you get the sense that first off, that’s what JK wants. Secondly, that’s what Patrick Deont wants. I think what Patrick Jamont wants is to conduct a search after they get through this season. I don’t foresee that. I know it’s talked about a lot and people love to throw it out there, but at this point, I think, you know, I think there’s going to be a search with X amount of candidates at the end of the season. And it sounds like at this point, again, early December, it sounds like both Ricardi and Finley will be part of that search, like they will have their shot. So, I mean, this is this is kind of everybody’s opportunity in the organization to show what they can do, share their vision. I think everybody can bring stuff to the table, but like we just saw with the Anthony Davis injury stuff, like Patrick Jamont obviously was the, you know, he co-signed the Luca trade, but for the most part, he he totally let Nico just operate this franchise. And when Patrick Dumont stepped in on the Anthony Davis injury return, that was really the first time that he got involved in like a granular daily basketball decision. And so I think more of that is taking place now because again they’re going with this committee approach where everybody makes suggestions and I mean obviously the only one who can really break any ties it it kind of has to be the owner. What has been your sense uh about how Patrick Jamont has felt since the firing of Nico Harrison and obviously how things have played out in the wake? I mean, it’s been a month now since Nico Harrison has been dismissed as the general manager. From your best read, what is your sense of how Deman has felt about things since that day? I mean, look, I got to be it’s really hard to get a read on him cuz like we we just we never see him. There’s so little interaction with him. I mean, the best the most that I can go on is like I think you know they’re what do they won? Four out of five. And he was at one of the games. Which game was the one he was at recently? What was the home game he was at? Was it the one with with the Lakers kid was at? No. No. He was at a rec Miami. Miami. Yeah, it was the Miami. So, it’s like, you know, I think the winning has obviously made him happy because, you know, they’ve played well here recently, but like I don’t want to pretend that I can give these huge in-depth reads on on on Dumont and his thinking because it’s still I’m still I’m still getting to know him and trying to read the way he operates too. You know, again with Cuban, he was in Cuban ran this franchise for almost 25 years and I got to cover it from day one. So I was it was much easier to try to project how Mark Cuban might react in a certain situation. It’s it’s a lot it’s a lot harder now just being honest with you guys. It’s harder because this is not an owner who gets on a stairmaster and holds court before every game like Mark Cuban did for years and years and years. Like I think what Kevin was trying to ask me like obviously Matt Ricardi and Michael Finley can’t operate the same way that Nico Harrison did where Nico Harrison had a huge amount of autonomy but I don’t think there are any like they can bring anything to the table that they want to but obviously the way that they’ve structured the front office for now is everything has to be brought to the table for the group to weigh in. So that’s a different approach obviously.

DLLS Mavs reporter Marc Stein dives into the Mavericks ongoing search for a GM to replace Nico Harrison. With a difficult cap salary situation, tough personnel decisions with players like Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson, Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford, plus deciding how to build around rookie phenom Cooper Flagg, the incoming GM will have a number of delicate situations to navigate. Marc provides an update on the Mavericks continuing search for a new general manager.