Mavs sign Jason Kidd to multi-year extension

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Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd has signed a multi-year contract extension, the team announced Monday. He had one season remaining on his current contract.

Kidd had been "hopeful" he would receive an extension, The Athletic's Sam Amick reported in late March. Now, he has it.

Kidd, who was hired in 2021 after front-office turmoil led to the departure of Rick Carlisle, has twice led the Mavericks past the first round of the playoffs. In 2022, the team made it to the Western Conference finals before falling to the eventual champion Golden State Warriors. Kidd recently steered the Mavericks past the LA Clippers in six games, setting up a West semifinals clash against the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder that begins Tuesday.

Between those two seasons, there was the 2022-23 campaign, which was a major step backward from where the team had been. Dallas finished 38-44 and missed the postseason entirely. There were fair criticisms of Kidd, but there were also many other factors that led to Dallas' catastrophic performances. Kidd never lost the locker room even after the team's midseason trade for Kyrie Irving, a transaction that was criticized by some for its perceived risk and especially so after the team's dismal finish.

This season, Dallas did the opposite, finishing the regular season with 23 wins in its final 31 games after making moves at the trade deadline for P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford. The two newcomers started every game in the Mavericks' first-round win over the Clippers. In this season's final months, Kidd, as he did in 2022, once again helped turn Dallas into one of the NBA's best defenses.

"My job is to make these young men better on and off the floor. You guys (the media) won't say that, but I think I've done that," Kidd said after a Sunday practice prior to the extension being announced. "That's my job. You can see my teams don't panic because we've lost a game."

It's clear Kidd has evolved since his previous coaching stints, which lasted one season with the Brooklyn Nets and four more with the Milwaukee Bucks before he was fired halfway through the 2017-18 season. He has a career record of 323-296 and is 140-106 across three seasons in Dallas.

Kidd spent time as a lead assistant coach with the Los Angeles Lakers, helping the team win the 2020 championship, before Dallas sought him as a preferred candidate in the summer of 2022. He might have been a potential option for the Lakers' current head coaching vacancy had he not signed this extension with Dallas.

Required Reading:

• This Mavericks team is built to contend for a long time
• Mavs-Thunder preview: What to watch for, how Maxi Kleber injury affects series 
• Dunks, athleticism, power: The Mavericks' new winning formula
• Mavericks' Dereck Lively II lost his mother, but found a family with his team

(Top photo: Rick Osentoski / USA Today)