The Dallas Mavericks have poached Portland Trail Blazers assistant GM Mike Schmitz, ESPN's Shams Charania reports. It's one of the first hires by the Mavericks' newly appointed Team President, Masai Ujiri.
Schmitz will become Dallas' next GM, overseeing the day-to-day basketball operations under Ujiri. It's a great hire for Dallas, and an exciting and well-deserved career advancement for Schmitz, who has successfully worked his way up from joining ESPN as a draft analyst in 2017. Portland certainly will miss his keen eye for player evaluation.
Blazers will miss Mike Schmitz's player evaluation
Admittedly, the Blazers haven't necessarily nailed the draft under Schmitz. Shaedon Sharpe and Donovan Clingan were two relative hits, while it's hard to blame Schmitz for Scoot Henderson, given that he was the overwhelming consensus selection at the time. Kris Murray has been underwhelming as a former first-round pick, showing little to no progress in an unreliable three-point shot. The shocking Yang Hansen remains puzzling, though it's far too early to tell how that multi-year project will play out.
However, what can easily get overlooked in Schmitz's time with the Blazers is identifying talents to acquire via trade. He was incredibly high on Deni Avdija as an international prospect entering the 2020 draft. At ESPN, he even published a piece about how Avdija belongs in the top tier of prospects, along with Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball, and James Wiseman.
It's safe to assume he had his fingerprints on the Blazers' decision to acquire Avdija. It was heavily criticized at the time, as many thought Portland, a rebuilding team, shouldn't be sacrificing valuable draft capital. In retrospect, it was an absolute fleece by the Blazers' front office, as Avdija not only became an All-Star in his second season in Portland but also remains on one of the best contracts in the league.
Another trade Portland won lopsidedly was the Damian Lillard blockbuster, in which they acquired a building block, Toumani Camara. As a second-round pick, many thought Camara was a throw-in piece in the Jusuf Nurkic-Deandre Ayton swap. However, the Blazers were adamant about including Camara in the package, having done their pre-draft homework. It's these behind-the-scenes things that make losing their assistant GM a massive blow for Portland.
It sounds like Joe Cronin's job is safe under Tom Dundon for now. Cronin addressed his job security at the exit interview, saying that Dundon had such a straightforward approach that if he was on the chopping block, he'd likely already know. So this was absolutely the right move for Schmitz to advance his career. Mavericks fans also deserve a competent GM after the Nico Harrison-Luka Doncic saga they've had to endure. With a front office of Ujiri and now Schmitz, the new Cooper Flagg era is in good hands.
But unfortunately, it had to come at Portland's expense.
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