The Dallas Mavericks moved on Friday to formally close the front-office overhaul that began with the firing of Nico Harrison and the hiring of Masai Ujiri as president of basketball operations. The franchise announced that Mike Schmitz, the former Portland Trail Blazers assistant general manager and longtime ESPN draft analyst, will take over as the team's new general manager.
The announcement, first reported by Shams Charania of ESPN, came two days before the NBA Draft Lottery in Chicago — a deliberate piece of timing for a Mavericks operation that landed the No. 1 overall pick last year despite a 1.8 percent lottery odds and used it on Cooper Flagg. Mavericks assistant general manager Matt Riccardi, the team confirmed, will still represent Dallas at the lottery on Sunday, with Schmitz transitioning into the GM chair behind him.
Ujiri, in the statement released alongside Schmitz's hiring, framed the appointment as a values match as much as a basketball one.
"Mike is one of the most respected evaluators and basketball minds in the NBA," Ujiri said. "He brings intelligence, discipline, humility and a relentless work ethic to everything he does. Just as importantly, he understands how to build an aligned, collaborative culture across every part of a basketball organization. We are building something special in Dallas and Mike will be a major part of that vision."
Schmitz, in his own statement included in the team release, was equally pointed about why Dallas pulled him from Portland.
"Joining the Dallas Mavericks is an incredible opportunity," Schmitz said. "I have tremendous respect for Masai, this ownership group and the vision they have for the future of this franchise. I'm excited to get to work alongside the talented group already in place and help build a championship-caliber organization."
The pairing of Ujiri and Schmitz consolidates a clear front-office identity around the draft. Schmitz had spent four years in Portland's front office after joining the Trail Blazers in May 2022, helping run a draft-board operation that landed pieces like Toumani Camara — a non-lottery selection now widely cited as one of the best per-pick value bets of the past three drafts. Before Portland, Schmitz built his public profile as the lead draft analyst at ESPN from 2017, having joined the network from Draft Express, the scouting outlet he co-led after starting his career as a video coordinator with the Bakersfield Jam in the NBA G League in 2012-13.
He has also worked as an assistant coach with the Ugandan men's national team since 2018, a connection that runs directly back to Ujiri, who has long been the most prominent Nigerian-Canadian executive in the NBA and a central figure in the Basketball Without Borders Africa program. Multiple reports out of Dallas cited that overlap as one reason the relationship with Ujiri came together quickly.
For the Mavericks, the strategic logic of the hire is straightforward. With Cooper Flagg already on a rookie deal and the franchise pivoting toward a younger championship window, Dallas will likely pick late in the first round for the foreseeable future as the roster matures. Ujiri's track record at the Toronto Raptors of unearthing late-first-round contributors — Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby and others — pairs neatly with a GM whose entire career has been built around finding and rating players outside the obvious ten.
The move also leaves Dallas with a clarified internal hierarchy ahead of a busy offseason. Ujiri retains overall basketball authority as president and alternate governor; Schmitz takes day-to-day management and strategic alignment of the basketball operations department; Riccardi remains in place as a key continuity piece into the lottery; and head coach Jason Kidd, who was reportedly a factor in the Mavericks wanting a basketball-first GM hired before the draft, retains the bench.
What the hire does not yet answer is the Kyrie Irving question. National analysts have spent the past week speculating about whether Ujiri's first major chess piece will be a willingness to trade the All-Star guard. With Schmitz formally on board and Sunday's lottery looming, the Mavericks finally have a complete brain trust to make those calls. The decisions, like the hire itself, will now be Ujiri's and Schmitz's together.
