The Dallas Mavericks appointed Jason Kidd as their new head coach and Nike executive Nico Harrison as the team's general manager to run basketball operations, according to ESPN's Tim MacMahon.

Kidd, who was the assistant coach under Frank Vogel in the Los Angeles Lakers, was a preferred choice by his predecessor Rick Carlisle.

"My hope is that Jason Kidd will be the next coach of the Mavs because he and Luka [Doncic] have so many things in common as players," said Carlisle to ESPN after leaving the position he had been working in for 13 years. "I just think that it would be a great situation for Luka, and I think it would be an amazing situation for Jason. I'm the only person on the planet that's coached both of those guys and that knows about all of their special qualities as basketball players. To me, that just would be a great marriage, but that's just an opinion."

In his 19-year-long career as a player, Kidd played for the Mavericks twice. He was drafted by the team with the No. 2 pick in the NBA Draft in 1994. Though he already showed potential for a historic point guard in the following three years, it's hard to say Kidd spent his best years in the Mavericks.

When he returned in 2008, both him and the team were old. However, aging made great vino in 2011 when Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki, who were 38 and 33 years old respectively that year, led the Mavericks to win their first and only NBA Championship in franchise history. Carlisle was their head coach back then.

Kidd's coaching career was not long (2013-14 in the Brooklyn Nets, 2014-18 in the Milwaukee Bucks) and hardly successful. However, Kidd had some unique thoughts on helping young players grow and some of them led to some surprising progress. For example, he was the one to put Giannis Antetokounmpo, a 2.11-meter-tall big guy, to the point guard position in the Bucks. Though the Greek Freak did not become a true orchestrator in the end, improved dribble skills, passing and court vision played important roles for Antetokounmpo to be named two-straight-time NBA MVP.

The Mavericks young ace Luka Doncic, who is already one of the league's best playmakers, can learn how to be a better orchestrator from Kidd as well. Doncic's game style so far has been using individual offense to bring along orchestrating. Kidd, even in his prime time, did not share Doncic's remarkable scoring ability, but he had more than enough ways of passing the ball to the right one in the right position at the right timing in the right way.

Harrison was a long-time executive at Nike before taking the new job in the Mavericks. During the 20 years in the American sport gear manufacturer, he established connections with many NBA players and Doncic is one of them. According to ESPN, Harrison's relationship with Doncic is "strong," which should be helpful for his role in the team.