Donnie Nelson leaves Mavs after explosive report of front office turmoil

Donnie Nelson leaves the Dallas Mavericks organization after 21 seasons with the franchise.

Amid a report of ongoing front office turmoil, the Dallas Mavericks and former general manager and president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson agreed to part ways on Wednesday afternoon.

Nelson first came to Dallas in 1998 to join his head coach father Don Nelson. He was instrumental in drafting Dirk Nowitzki out of Germany and had been a mainstay in Dallas throughout Mark Cuban’s ownership of the team. In the days since The Athletic reported of Haralabos Voulgaris’ rise to prominence in Dallas, Nelson has exited stage left. Voulgaris appears to be out as well.

Dallas has not won a playoff series since winning the 2011 NBA Finals over a decade ago.

Dallas Mavericks: Donnie Nelson leaves organization amid front office turmoil

There is no other way to look at this than it being major, major news in the Dallas organization. What was Mavericks basketball before the Nelsons arrived in the late 1990s? We all know that Cuban is the star of his franchise, but Nelson’s departure is perhaps bigger news than if long-time head coach Rick Carlisle were to be fired. All the while, Luka Doncic needs a better supporting cast.

If Nelson is the scapegoat for Dallas’ inability to get past the LA Clippers in round one, so be it, but that does not change the fact that the Mavericks organization has massively underperformed for a decade now. While Doncic will inevitably agree to the super-max whenever he is offered it, we have to wonder if the organization will do a decent job building a championship team around him.

With Nelson now out of the picture, it is truly the end of an era when it comes to Mavs basketball.