Garrett Temple Retiring As Player, Joining Mavs’ Coaching Staff

Stein first reported on Friday (via Twitter) that May was pursuing Temple to join his staff. He received confirmation on Saturday from Temple’s agent, Dan Eveloff, that the 40-year-old was transitioning to coaching.

As Stein notes, Temple will join a coaching staff in Dallas that also features Willie Green. Temple played two seasons in New Orleans when Green was the head coach.

Temple will also reunite with former Raptors president Masai Ujiri, who is now the head of basketball operations in Dallas.

Temple has spent the past three seasons with Toronto as a veteran leader for the Raptors. He played 73 total minutes across 22 games in 2025/26.

Blake Murphy and Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca and Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (All Twitter links) are among the reporters in Toronto who spoke highly of Temple in the wake of the news, praising his teaching ability, leadership and mentorship of the Raptors’ young players.

Temple, who went undrafted out of LSU in 2009, bounced around the NBA over his first two seasons, having played for five different teams. After a one-year stint in Italy, he returned to the NBA the following season with the Wizards and ended up spending four years in Washington, D.C.

Temple played for 12 different teams over the course of his 16 years in the NBA. In total, he averaged 5.8 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.6 assists on .399/.342/.744 shooting in 793 regular season games, including 289 starts (19.6 minutes per contest).