Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd‘s recently announced multiyear contract extension with Dallas is believed to be in the same financial ballpark as the Kings’ first leaked extension offer to incumbent Sacramento head coach Mike Brown, reports Sean Cunningham of Fox 40 KTXL (Twitter link).
The Kings’ initial offer to Brown was said to be worth $21MM over three seasons, or up to $27MM with incentives, effectively making it worth $7-9MM annually. Sacramento eventually agreed to a three-year deal that will reportedly pay him at least $25.5MM total, and up to $30MM with incentives.
While the exact details of Kidd’s deal aren’t known, if it’s between $7-9MM per year, it suddenly looks like a bargain, given that he has led the club to its second Western Conference Finals and its first NBA Finals in the weeks since he inked the contract. Many of the established head coaches who have inked new contracts within the last 12 months have received eight-figure salaries.
Kidd has coached the Mavericks to a 140-106 overall regular season record and a 21-14 playoff record across his three years with the team so far. He has a chance to add a Larry O’Brien Trophy to his coaching résumé this summer and looks like a safe bet to remain in Dallas for the foreseeable future.
There’s more out of Dallas:
- Mavericks star point guard Kyrie Irving is slated to appear in his first NBA Finals since 2017 when he was still with the Cavaliers. Intriguingly, he’ll be facing off against another one of his former teams in the Celtics, led by his former teammates Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. As Marc J. Spears of Andscape relays, Irving is looking forward to the opportunity to win his second title. “It has been seven long years, but it has also felt like the right amount of time in order to reward myself,” Irving said. “I know how much chaos was going to try to be created. But I have to give a shot out to a lot our staff, our PR people, our day-to-day maintenance of physical therapy, upper management because they really instilled the confidence to be myself.”
- The Mavericks are steeling themselves for the challenge of Boston’s multifaceted attack, writes Eddie Sefko of Mavericks.com. The Celtics posted a league-best 64-18 regular season record and ran through the East, going 12-2 in the playoffs this spring. “They’re the best team in the NBA,” All-Star guard Luka Doncic said. “They have by far the best record, some incredible weapons on offense and defense so we’re going to have to play really hard and amazing basketball to beat them.”
- Rookie Dallas center Dereck Lively II admitted in a Sunday presser that he himself is surprised he has become a major contributor on a Finals team this season, per Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter video link). “None of us expected this,” Lively said. “They expected me to come to the Dallas Mavericks and learn. That’s what I did. I don’t think they expected me to learn this much this quick.”
Celts in 5, maybe 6
Depends if KP is and stays healthy or not, without KP they lose it to the Mavs in 6
Celts in 7 without KP. Jmo.
Celtics already beat Mavs without KP. They’ve beaten them both times this year.
Celtics starting 5 can guard anyone with the exception of Horford having trouble with PnR that Luka controls. Mavs don’t have 5 solid defenders. Kyrie and Luka can’t guard Tatum or Brown Or Holiday. Either way will be entertaining series once you can get past Luka complaining constantly.
Mavs timed out that extension with Kidd perfectly. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Jalen Brunson … but hindsight is 20/20.