After Haralabos Voulgaris reportedly gained power within the Mavericks front office and bothered Luka Doncic…
Dallas parted with longtime team president Donnie Nelson.
One possible reason there are no talks right now: There’s nothing to talk about.
Doncic has already qualified for a super-max contract extension this offseason. He can probably command the full 30% starting salary, max raises and a player option. This likely isn’t a negotiation.
If there’s even a little noise about Doncic actually not signing the extension, that’d be a huge deal. But an absence of talks alone isn’t much cause for concern.
That said, because the stakes are so high, it’s still worth watching closely. The Mavericks reportedly ousted Nelson after Doncic indicated he’d sign his extension.
Tim MacMahon of ESPN:
The decision for Donnie Nelson to leave the Mavericks was made Sunday, sources told ESPN.
— Tim MacMahon (@espn_macmahon) June 16, 2021
Doncic probably really liked Nelson, who was instrumental in bringing the young star to Dallas. Obviously, the Mavericks want to keep Doncic happy. But the best way they can do that is building a better team, which the next lead executive could do.
Dallas will have several years to make progress around Doncic – unless he takes the unprecedented step of rejecting his super-max rookie-scale extension. Right now, I just don’t see enough reason to fret about that possibility.