{"id":690903,"date":"2026-04-01T00:36:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T00:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/690903\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T00:36:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T00:36:25","slug":"mavericks-ceo-rick-welts-discusses-gm-search-cooper-flaggs-promising-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/690903\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavericks CEO Rick Welts discusses GM search, Cooper Flagg’s promising future"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Mavericks<\/a> are nearing the end of yet another disappointing season, but their future remains bright thanks to their Rookie of the Year candidate, Cooper\u00a0Flagg<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, team CEO Rick Welts and president Ethan Casson hosted D-FW media for a lunch that also included a brief media availability session. Welts was asked to share his grand vision for the franchise on a macro level.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I hope Cooper Flagg is MVP at the NBA Finals and we have a banner hanging in the arena,\u201d Welts said. \u201cEvery reason that I chose to come here out of retirement, every one of those reasons still exists here today. This franchise should stand toe-to-toe, not just with any franchise in the NBA, but with any franchise in sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

After 13 straight losses at American Airlines Center<\/a> and a 24-51 record going into Wednesday\u2019s game in Milwaukee, the Mavericks are far from their championship aspirations. And before they can put together a roster worthy of competing with the NBA\u2019s elite, they\u2019ll need a permanent general manager in place.<\/p>\n

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Welts didn\u2019t provide a substantial update on the comprehensive search and instead reiterated the team\u2019s preferred timeline to have Nico Harrison\u2019s successor in place before the NBA draft, which doesn\u2019t have a solidified date, but will likely be held in June. He was also specific with his choice of words to describe the new leader, refraining to use the title of general manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very comprehensive process that we\u2019re going through now,\u201d Welts said. \u201cThe point person on that is (Governor) Patrick Dumont. We want to have a head of basketball in place before the draft.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dumont appointed Michael Finley<\/a> and Matt Riccardi<\/a> as co-interim general managers on Nov. 11 when he fired Harrison and the duo has worked in tandem since, splitting up the duties usually reserved for one. They orchestrated the Mavericks\u2019 blockbuster trade of sending Anthony Davis to the Washington Wizards, while providing the franchise financial flexibility to prioritize its future around Flagg.<\/p>\n

When asked for ideal qualities in a permanent candidate, Welts deferred to what could be considered Dumont\u2019s preference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s in the eye of the beholder and there\u2019s no specific set of characteristics,\u201d Welts said. \u201cI can tell you there\u2019s a variety of candidates, which present very different personalities, very different track records. It\u2019s the most important decision that the organization’s going to make for the coming season. So we\u2019re going to take our time with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time should be on the side of Mavericks coach\u00a0Jason Kidd, who signed a contract extension last September for the second consecutive offseason.\u00a0Welts did not offer a direct response when asked for the franchise\u2019s level of confidence in keeping Kidd in place as coach, instead highlighting his affinity for the Mavericks leader, who he entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame with in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s let Jason get through the season,\u201d Welts said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a rough year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The description is accurate, but the season is almost over with just seven games remaining.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Mavericks are nearing the end of yet another disappointing season, but their future remains bright thanks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,686,149,4057,166,6,87203,87204,87093],"class_list":["post-690903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas-mavericks","tag-basketball","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-dallasmavericks","tag-mavericks","tag-nba","tag-tp-dallas-mavericks","tag-tp-rick-welts","tag-tp-cooper-flagg"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116326654500326441","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}