Mavericks Notes: Kokoskov, St. Jean, Front Office, Porzingis

the Mavericks are working on adding former Suns head coach and current Fenerbahce coach Igor kokoskov at Jason kidd‘s as an assistant, according to several reports. Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report (Twitter link) first reported that Dallas was aiming for Kokoskov, while Marc Stein (Twitter link) said there was “tangible optimism” that the Mavs will be able to hire him.

As Stein explains (via twitter), Kokoskov is technically still under contract with Fenerbahce in EuroLeague, so the Mavs and the Turkish club are expected to come to some sort of deal freeing him from that deal.

In addition to coaching the Suns for one season (2018/19), Kokoskov worked as an assistant for seven other NBA teams. He and Kidd have never overlapped at any of these locations, but Kokoskov has a notable connection to the current Mavs – he was the head coach of the Slovenian squad that won gold at the 2017 EuroBasket tournament, led by Luka Doncic.

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• The Mavericks are also expected to hire Greg Saint-Jean to their coaching staff, Stein reports (via twitter). As Kyle Goon of the Southern California News Group observes (via twitter), St. Jean was a player development coach and advanced scout for the Lakers for two years and has been close to Kidd.
• At a Mavs press conference on Thursday, Nico harrison has been featured as both the team’s general manager and president of basketball operations, notes Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News (via twitter). However, the owner of the team Marc Cuban says he will always be the one to make the final decisions about basketball, tweets Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News. “I always do it because it’s a lot of money, “ said Cuban.
• Cuban refused to say if Haralabos Voulgaris is still with the Mavs, according to Caplan (Twitter link). A report last month said Voulgaris had gained inordinate influence within the team’s front office but was not yet under contract beyond 2020/21.
• While there has been speculation that the Mavs could explore the trade Kristaps Porzingis this offseason, the team gave no indication on Thursday that such a move is in the cards. Kidd praised Porzingis’ form in Dallas and said he expected to see “a different KP“go ahead, while Cuban said the big man has been”unfairly criticized“(Twitter connections via Caplan).