Doncic, for reference, is 22 years old, and a
pushy 22 at that. He challenged Carlisle, just as Kidd had a decade before him, only more theatrically; Luka coming into a timeout yelling at his coach eventually became a standard part of the Mavericks’ in-arena experience. Carlisle was always effusive in his praise of Doncic, as he often was of Kidd. Their basketball genius is undeniable—and could be a point of connection between them. Yet Carlisle, ever sardonic,
might not have had the extrasensory playmaking of the two guards in mind when, in speaking with
ESPN.com’s Tim MacMahon, he endorsed Kidd as Doncic’s next head coach “because he and Luka have so many things in common as players.”
Somehow, Kidd’s hiring doesn’t feel like it came out of good process, good ethics, or even good basketball. If it isn’t rooted entirely in 2011 nostalgia, any decision to bring Kidd back to coach would have to stem from the idea that he could evolve beyond what he showed in his past two attempts to do this very job. His previous stints were not without vision, whether it showed in the way he opened up Giannis Antetokounmpo’s game by playing him at point guard or how he maximized certain role players by using them as other coaches wouldn’t. Yet taken in full, even those feel small, like flashes against the backdrop of a less inspiring body of work—bits of good tactics when the Mavericks, in all their organizational disquiet, need so much more.