Mavericks hiring former Jason Kidd teammate

The Dallas Mavericks are bringing in a guy who goes way back with head coach Jason Kidd.

Ex-NBA forward Ronald “Popeye” Jones has agreed to join the Mavericks coaching staff, veteran NBA writer Marc Stein reported on Wednesday. Jones has been an assistant coach in the NBA for the last decade-and-a-half and had spent the last four years on the Denver Nuggets’ coaching staff (but was recently let go after Denver decided to clean house).

Additionally, Jones, 55, has plenty of history with Kidd and the Mavericks. He played for the Mavericks from 1993-96 and again from 2002-03. Jones’ first stint coincided with that of Kidd, who played in Dallas from 1994-96 (and again from 2008-12). The two played together on the Mavericks under then-head coach Dick Motta.

Now that Kidd is himself the head coach of the Mavericks, he is putting together a star-studded assistant coaching staff for next season. Kidd recently added a former NBA champion head coach to serve as his lead assistant and picked up a couple of other notable names as well.

Dallas went just 39-43 last season and could be without All-Star guard Kyrie Irving (left ACL tear) for all of next season. But with the likes of Anthony Davis and Klay Thompson still leading the charge plus the additions of No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg in the draft and former All-Star D’Angelo Russell in free agency, there is a lot of reason to be optimistic about the Mavericks moving forward.

As for Jones, he also previously served as an assistant coach for the Nets, the Pacers, and the 76ers. Now Jones will be running it back in Dallas under his former ’90s NBA teammate Kidd.