Jason Kidd’s exit marks end of Luka Doncic debacle, new boss in charge

The last time Patrick Dumont signed off on a major move by his chief of basketball ops, the reverberations were felt league-wide, if not on a global stage.

Tuesday, it was just Jason Kidd going out the door without so much as a bang. 

But don’t mistake the similarity in messaging. 

Masai Ujiri is in charge, just as Nico Harrison was when he gifted Luka Doncic to the Lakers and forever altered the arc of the Mavs’ organization. Now the last vestige of the regime that committed the cardinal sin is gone. 

How solid is Dumont’s commitment to Ujiri? He went from a Kidd fan who once considered him for the position Ujiri now holds to an owner reportedly willing to eat the $40 million still owed his former coach. 

As noted earlier this week in this very space, whatever else you might think of Dumont, you should admire a willingness to spend his inheritance. 

The reasons for what was termed a mutual parting weren’t made clear Tuesday, but you’d have to think the new regime of Ujiri and Mike Schmitz might have felt uncomfortable with Kidd’s desire for a bigger role. Otherwise, it might be nothing more than a case of Ujiri wanting his own guy, like any new boss. 

Kidd guided flawed Mavs teams to the Western Conference and NBA Finals in two of his five seasons in charge, but he wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. He did things his way. Like making Cooper Flagg play the point right out of the box. He might have been doing the teenager a favor in the long run, but it made for a rough transition to the NBA. 

Kidd came to Dallas with a history in Brooklyn and Milwaukee of wearing out his welcome. He hung around longer in Dallas than at either of his previous stops, and he was a candidate for the Knicks’ job last year before Dumont denied permission, giving him another bump in the process. 

But he won’t be missed by the faithful here who complained frequently of his seemingly drive-by style. His impact, both good and bad, was far greater than any such description might suggest. 

The good: He and his former boss not only made Kyrie Irving feel welcomed, they handed him the keys, precipitating the most trouble-free era of Irving’s mercurial career. Now that both Nico and Kidd are gone, it’ll be interesting to see if Kyrie wants to finish out his career in Dallas or if Ujiri adds him to a long line of front-burner deals like those that made him famous in Denver and Toronto. 

Kidd also receives credit for getting the 2021-22 team to the conference finals after Luka’s late start, then finishing runner-up two years later. His guys paid him the ultimate compliment by playing hard even as the organization tried its best to tank. 

But was it great coaching that led to his signature seasons, or was it more likely a case of three great guard talents exerting their formidable wills? 

The bad: For a guy who apparently wanted a bigger say in personnel, Kidd didn’t do much to keep Jalen Brunson before the Mavs let him walk. And if it’s true, as he claimed, that he didn’t learn about Nico’s conversations with the Lakers “until the 11th hour,” he didn’t try hard enough to stop it. Assuming he even wanted to. 

At the very least, he helped pave the path to Luka’s exit. 

From the beginning, Kidd complained to anyone who’d listen about his point guard’s lack of conditioning. That was by design when Reggie Miller pointed it out on a national broadcast. Kidd also helped promote a theory within the organization that, because of his unwillingness to take care of himself, Luka’s championship window wouldn’t extend past his 30th birthday. 

A Hall of Fame point guard in his own right, Kidd had ideas about how the position should be played. He liked to play uptempo, thus involving all parties. Luka dominated the ball. Kidd was an excellent defender; Luka, a half-hearted one, at best. 

Near the end of his final season, when I asked Kidd what he liked most in a point guard, he said, “Someone who makes the players around him better.”  Whether he thought Luka did just that, I can’t say, but I don’t know how else you explain the depth of the ‘22 and ‘24 playoff runs otherwise. 

On a podcast this spring, Mark Cuban lumped Kidd in with Nico in the Luka deal, a charge Kidd vehemently protested. It was an uncharacteristically weak defense on his part. His carping had to have reinforced Nico’s desires. Kidd should have made it clear to his boss that Luka, who’d been playing basketball with adults since he was 14, had his flaws, but they didn’t rise to the level of dumping him. He was a textbook case of deferred adolescence. Sooner or later he’d grow up and do what was required to extend his career into the next decade. 

Until then, the fact that he was a perennial MVP contender at 25 wasn’t such a bad consolation prize. 

Now the actors who brought an end to the Luka era in Dallas are gone, and a new boss is in charge. At long last the organization can turn the page.

Let’s hope the next chapter isn’t half as shocking. Not sure my ticker could take it.