Mavericks' chance at dream Luka Doncic reunion takes hit after Magic's head coach hire

With the Orlando Magic being the latest team to bring in a new head coach by hiring Sean Sweeney on Friday, the Dallas Mavericks' chance to bring Luka Doncic back to Dallas in the summer of 2028 just got harder. Many Mavericks fans viewed Sweeney as the team's best option to replace Jason Kidd, with a major reason for this being his relationship with Doncic.

A Luka Doncic return to Dallas is far from impossible

Doncic will potentially become a free agent in the summer of 2028, and Mavericks fans have dreamed about him returning to Dallas since the moment Nico Harrison traded him away. He has a player option after the 2027-28 season, and assuming he opts out to receive a bigger payday, the Mavs make sense as a potential destination. This is the type of move that would change everything for Dallas and make them immediate contenders once again.

They got rid of Kidd and Harrison, the two faces of the infamous move that sent him to the Los Angeles Lakers, and he has never been shy about how much he loves Dallas. Cutting ties with Harrison and Kidd was step one to making his return more of a possibility. The next step is bringing in a head coach he'd love to play for.

Sean Sweeney heading East makes this much harder

With Sweeney off the board, they missed out on an excellent candidate that would've taken this new-look Mavericks team to new heights and given Doncic a major reason to consider a thrilling return to Big D in free agency one day. He has a special place in his heart for Dallas, as shown by his emotional homecoming game in April of 2024, and the perfect next chapter to his career would be him coming back to the city he called home for the first six and a half seasons of his career.

Sweeney could've been a major component in making Dallas' potential recruiting pitch much more appealing for the Slovenian superstar, and their history together is undeniable.

Luka Doncic clearly admires Sean Sweeney

Sweeney was an assistant under Kidd in Dallas for four seasons from 2021 until 2025. He left last offseason, just months after Doncic was traded to the Lakers. Doncic wasn't shy about his admiration for Sweeney during the three and a half seasons they spent together on the Mavericks, and Sweeney even helped coach the Slovenian National Team in the summer of 2024.

It wasn't a coincidence that a Mavericks head coach who was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, joined Slovenia's staff. Doncic and Sweeney were truly fond of one another, and Sweeney was a big reason that the Mavericks built a dominant defense around Doncic, which ultimately helped lead to deep playoff runs in 2022 and 2024.

Now, less than two years after Sweeney and Doncic made the NBA Finals together, they're separated.

Sweeney could've been the secret weapon to thrilling Luka homecoming

Sweeney is the head coach of the Magic after about 15 years in the NBA, and Doncic is the face of the franchise in Los Angeles. How sweet it would have been if Sweeney returned to Dallas this summer, stacked two good seasons for the Mavericks, and then played a key role in trying to get Doncic to come back to Dallas as well.

Sweeney was a spectacular option to become the Mavs' head coach, as he would've been a great fit to mentor Cooper Flagg. He played a key role in Doncic's development, and with Flagg's love for playing defense, Sweeney would've been able to bring the absolute best out of him.

A Sweeney-Mavericks homecoming leading to Doncic's return would've been a wild series of events that Mavericks fans would've loved. But with Sweeney becoming Orlando's head coach, Patrick Dumont's potential perfect Kidd replacement option to put Dallas back in Luka Magic's crosshairs is off the board.

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