In June 2025, with the fan base still raw from the trade, then-general manager Nico Harrison stood at a podium and said he believed drafting the No. 1 pick, Cooper Flagg, would help heal his relationship with Mavericks fans. Harrison was fired five months later. The wound, it turns out, required more than a draft pick to close. On Monday, the man brought in to properly begin that healing process stepped up to a podium of his own and became the first member of Dallas’ leadership to speak about Luka Doncic’s departure with the kind of dignity the moment had always deserved.

In his introductory press conference as Mavericks team president and alternate governor, Masai Ujiri addressed the trade directly, the one question hanging over every conversation about Dallas’ future. “I want to be very respectful to everybody here, and yes, there’s a healing process with that,” Ujiri said. “Luka is a Hall of Famer, a future Hall of Famer, and that’s the past. I always say in Africa, we say when kings go, kings come, and a king went, and we have a little prince here, now we’re going to turn into a king.”

The line landed as both an acknowledgment and a redirection, honoring what was lost while making clear that the organization’s gaze is firmly forward. Ujiri joins Dallas roughly a year after being let go by the Toronto Raptors, where he spent 13 seasons and delivered the franchise its only NBA championship in 2019.

His path to that title ran directly through a controversial trade, shipping away then-franchise cornerstone DeMar DeRozan to acquire Kawhi Leonard. This move was met with fury in Toronto before it produced a parade. The parallel to what Dallas is navigating now is not subtle, and Ujiri, who has lived on the other side of that kind of institutional pain, chose his language at the podium accordingly.

He will oversee all aspects of the Mavericks’ basketball operations, roster construction, player personnel, and scouting, while working with team leadership to shape the franchise’s long-term philosophy.

The man he was building around gave him every reason to be confident in that first press conference. Cooper Flagg, coming off his Rookie of the Year season, averaged 21.0 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 1.2 steals in 70 games, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to score 50 points in a single game along the way. “The one difficult thing to find anywhere in sports,” Ujiri said, “is a generational player, and we have one. We’ve planted a Flagg here. We have one player here that can turn everything, and it is so hard to find in sports.”

A New Architecture Around Cooper Flagg, After the Departure of Doncic

The blueprint Ujiri inherits is one of the most interesting in the league, constrained in the present, but loaded with potential. Kyrie Irving missed the entire 2025-26 season recovering from an ACL injury and is expected to return next year, giving Dallas a proven co-star to develop alongside Flagg.

The Mavericks also hold a top-ten pick in the 2026 Draft, along with selections at 30 and 48, with the lottery taking place Sunday, giving Ujiri the chance to add another young piece to the core before he has even settled into his office.

His track record drafting outside the lottery is particularly relevant here: he selected Pascal Siakam at 27, OG Anunoby at 23, and Scottie Barnes at 4 over a five-year span in Toronto, a body of work that suggests he can make every pick count regardless of where it lands.

Mavericks Governor Patrick Dumont was direct about the standard the hire is meant to establish. “Masai Ujiri is one of the great basketball leaders of this generation, and his addition to our franchise is a critical step in meeting our goals,” Dumont said.

The goals, left unstated but widely understood, begin with making Dallas feel like a destination again, the kind of place a generational player wants to grow old in rather than escape from. Ujiri has done that once. The king has gone. The work of building the next one starts now.