Masai Ujiri was given every opportunity to say it, but he didn\u2019t for a reason \u2014 he doesn\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
And the man who hired him has empowered Ujiri to make his own decision. How novel.<\/p>\n
The most encouraging development of Dallas Mavericks<\/a> owner Patrick Dumont hiring Ujiri as the team\u2019s president of basketball operations is that Dumont plans to trust him to run the team. Of course, Mark Cuban did that (sorta) with Nico Harrison, which was fine until Nico\u2019s ego got in the way, and Dumont didn\u2019t know enough to stop him.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n That development, which included a minor trade involving the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> a while back, is ultimately why Tuesday\u2019s announcement was necessary. No franchise in sports has gone through more in the last two years than the Mavericks, and while 98 percent of their pain is self-inflicted, they are still not \u201cthrough\u201d it.<\/p>\n And they won\u2019t be through it until they start winning again.<\/p>\n On Tuesday at the American Airlines Center, the Mavericks introduced Ujiri, who made it clear they are lucky to have forward Cooper Flagg, but he would not say if the Mavericks will retain Jason Kidd as the head coach.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cWe are going to look at this thing from head to toe,\u201d Ujiri said during his introductory press conference when asked if Kidd would be back.<\/p>\n Ujiri didn\u2019t say yes, or no. An obvious conclusion to this first query is that Kidd<\/a> is likely gone: When the GM, or owner, won\u2019t verbally commit to a coach, well, it usually spells bad news for the coach.<\/p>\n I asked Ujiri a follow-up question, to clarify.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you go back to my history I\u2019ve done the same thing everywhere I\u2019ve been,\u201d Ujiri said.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Ujiri still would not say if Kidd will or won\u2019t be back. But after the mention of Ujiri\u2019s history the safe bet is to plan that Kidd will return for his sixth season as the Mavs coach<\/a>.<\/p>\n When Ujiri was named the general manager of the Denver Nuggets in 2010, he inherited head coach George Karl and kept him for the length of Ujiri\u2019s tenure there.<\/p>\n When Ujiri left Denver in 2013 for the Toronto Raptors, he inherited coach Dwane Casey,<\/a> who had already been in Toronto for two seasons and had not achieved a winning record. Ujiri kept Casey for the next five years, all playoff seasons that included a trip to the Eastern Conference finals.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Kidd would have to torpedo his extended sit-down conversations with Ujiri to lose this job; think full-on QAnon-level conspiracy rants about the NBA, society, and the real reason why traffic in DFW is so bad is because of the government.<\/p>\n