The Dallas Mavericks are already making moves after their steaming toilet blaze of a 2022-23 season.
Veteran NBA writer Marc Stein reports Monday that the Mavericks are in advanced talks to hire Dennis Lindsey as a consultant to general manager Nico Harrison. Lindsey had previously been lead executive of the Utah Jazz.
Serving as Utah’s GM from 2012-19 and then as their executive VP of basketball operations from 2019-21, Lindsey has a strong track record.
He led the Jazz regimes that made draft-night trades for cornerstone future All-Stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert. Under Lindsey’s leadership, Utah also made multiple impactful free agent signings (such as Joe Johnson in 2016 and Bojan Bogdanovic in 2019) and trades (like the separate 2019 moves for both Mike Conley and Jordan Clarkson).
As for Dallas, who went 38-44 this year and missed a 20-team postseason, they are entering a pivotal summer. Letting Kyrie Irving (whom they gave up Dorian Finney-Smith, Spencer Dinwiddie, and draft capital for) leave in free agency might be equally as dire of an outcome as overpaying to keep him.
Christian Wood and Dwight Powell are among the Mavericks’ other unrestricted free agents as well.
With franchise player Luka Doncic facing increasing speculation over his long-term future with the team, Dallas cannot afford to mess this offseason up. Their impending hire of Lindsey seems to be an acknowledgment of just as much.
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