The Dallas Mavericks are reportedly hiring Mike Schmitz as the franchise’s new General Manager, per Shams Charania. The team confirmed the hire Friday afternoon.
The move coincides with a front office overhaul in Dallas and follows Masai Ujiri being hired as the team’s new president in early May.
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There has been a microscope on who this hire would be, given who they are replacing. Former Mavericks GM Nico Harrison orchestrated the infamous trade of Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Following months of calls for his job, Harrison was fired in November 2025 after the Mavericks began the 2025-2026 season with a 3-8 record. Dallas has been conducting its GM search ever since.
Schmitz was most recently the assistant GM with the Portland Trail Blazers. He was suspended for two weeks in April after the NBA conducted an investigation and found that he and fellow Portland assistant GM Sergi Oliva had illegal contact with Yang Hansen two years before Portland drafted him, per The Athletic.
The duo had scouted Hansen in 2023 in China, but teams are prohibited from contacting players before they make a declaration for the NBA Draft.
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Schmitz joined Portland’s front office in 2022 as the assistant GM. When the move was announced, it was speculated that his primary focus would be on taking over the Trail Blazers’ domestic and international scouting departments.
Prior to that, he had spent six years working with ESPN as a draft analyst. Schmitz also worked for Yahoo Sports as an NBA Draft analyst and as a beat writer covering the Phoenix Suns.
