According to Marc Stein, the Dallas Mavericks have declined the New York Knicks formal request to speak to their head coach about their open position in New York.

Dallas wants to retain Jason Kidd for the upcoming season, so that a brilliant coach can develop Cooper Flagg and gel together the rest of team for a potential postseason run.

Over the past couple of days, New York’s front office compiled a list of head coaches they wanted to speak with, and Kidd’s name was top on the list. Other names were along the lines of Ime Udoka and Chris Finch.

Like the Mavericks, the Houston Rockets and Minnesota Timberwolves shot down their attempt to talk to their head coach. It is unclear what direction New York will trend in after getting denied.

They will most likely stop sending in formal requests to other teams, and rather go in the direction of head coach free agency.

Top coaches available would be Mike Malone, Taylor Jenkins, James Borrego, and Mike Brown.

According to multiple reports, spearheaded by ESPN, since the firing of Tom Thibodeau, the New York Knicks have been constructing their list of possible head coach candidates. This has ranged from Houston Rockets coach Ime Udoka to Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd.

While Houston has no interest in allowing their successful coach to interview for the Knicks open position, the Mavericks are giving Kidd the option to stay or to leave. Several reports have said Dallas won’t hold it against him if that’s the decision he wants to make.

New York is expected to reach out to the Mavericks to request an interview with Kidd, as both sides have mutual interest in one another.

“The way I would describe this is there’s mutual intrigue on both sides,” said Brian Windhorst on Monday’s Sports Center.

Kidd signed an extension during the Mavericks run to the NBA Finals back in 2024. It’s unclear whether the 52-year-old would want to leave Dallas in hopes of competing for a championship soon, or stay and develop Cooper Flagg – assuming the Mavericks select him.

According to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, at no point after Jason Kidd found out about the Luka Doncic trade did he try to stop the deal. It appeared he had no intentions of throwing himself in the middle to keep his franchise player in Dallas.

When the trade happened, Kidd publicly said he wasn’t involved in trading Doncic. Beyond that, he said Nico Harrison didn’t tell him until the eleventh hour.

“The trade was made and J-Kidd says he didn’t know about it until the eleventh hour, I’ll just say my understanding is he didn’t exactly toss himself in front of the oncoming train to try to prevent it from happening,” said Tim MacMahon on The Hoop Collective Podcast.

Since trading Doncic, Dallas finds themselves as a bottom-feeding team with a record of 38-42. Despite the injuries and numerous trades made, they found a way to claim the tenth seed in the Western Conference.

The Portland Trail Blazers and Phoenix Suns have been eliminated from playoff/Play-In contention.