Masai Ujiri's opening Mavericks move is a slap in the face to original front office

Masai Ujiri just made his first move as president of the Dallas Mavericks by hiring former Portland Trail Blazers assistant GM Mike Schmitz as the new GM of the team. Schmitz formerly worked as a draft expert for ESPN, so he'll provide great insights to the Mavericks under Ujiri, but this move was also a slap in the face to Dallas' former co-interim GMs, Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi.

Riccardi has been a voice of reason inside Dallas' organization the last few years, and both he and Finley were instrumental in crafting the Anthony Davis trade this past deadline. Finley has been in some sort of front office role for the Mavericks since roughly 2012, and has a myriad of knowledge in terms of how the business side of basketball works, so it's undoubtedly a shame neither he nor Riccardi ultimately got promoted to GM.

Riccardi is set to represent the Mavericks at the official drawing of the NBA Draft Lottery, even though Rolando Blackman will be representing the team for the televised version of the event, so it seems likely Riccardi will still be remaining with the Mavericks in a front office capacity.

Riccardi and Finley could feel disrespected by Schmitz's hiring as GM

Finley's role with Dallas going forward seems more up in the air. He was a part of the original regime in Dallas with Donnie Nelson that helped bring Luka Doncic to town in the first place, and he has unprecedented knowledge of how the Mavericks have operated for years, but Ujiri is set to evaluate everyone's fit inside his new front office going forward.

Schmitz's draft knowledge will serve Dallas well in the 2026 NBA Draft and potentially for years to come, but Ujiri definitely could've looked to promote from within first while still adding a draft expert like Schmitz to his new front office.

Finley would've been a great candidate given how much time and effort he's poured into Dallas' front office over the years, and the same can be said about Riccardi, given how he helped reconcile the Mavericks following the Doncic trade.

Finley or Riccardi could've been promoted to GM instead

Hiring an outsider like Schmitz has to feel like a major slap in the face to Finley and Riccardi, as both of them have proven they are deserving of being a head GM after creating a huge amount of financial flexibility with the Davis trade coming out of left field back in February.

It's easy to say this from a bird's-eye view, but obviously, no one knows the conversations happening behind the scenes with Ujiri and Dallas' incumbent front office. However, unless Finley is content with working as an assistant GM or something of the sort for the rest of his front office career, it'd make sense to shift to another organization at this point for him, as this seemed like the most likely instance in which he could've been promoted.

Given he's also an ex-player with the Mavericks, it seemed like everything was lining up for his experience to carry over to Dallas' organization in a larger capacity, but this simply wasn't the case, despite doing a great job as a co-interim GM. It'll be interesting to see Riccardi's new official title and whether or not Finley stays in Dallas at this point, but it's clear Ujiri isn't placing favoritism on them despite the work they've done.

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