Casey Smith, the longtime lead athletic trainer for the Dallas Mavericks, won’t continue in the same role this coming season, multiple team and league sources tell The Athletic.
In August, Smith was informed by Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison that his role would be changed to a broader focus with reduced involvement in the team’s day-to-day operations, according to team and league sources who were granted anonymity to speak freely. That change means Smith would no longer sit on the team’s bench or appear in the locker room during games. Smith is expected to have further conversations with Harrison and Mark Cuban to clarify next season’s role and his future beyond it, one team source said, but those conversations haven’t happened yet as Smith has dealt with a family medical emergency.
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Several team sources believe the change to Smith’s role makes his future with the organization uncertain beyond his current contract, which has a year remaining. Smith did not respond when contacted by The Athletic. ESPN first reported the news of his new role.
Smith has been a highly influential figure within the Mavericks organization since joining as the team’s lead athletic trainer in 2004. He has longstanding friendships with Dirk Nowitzki and coach Jason Kidd, and he often served as a liaison between the locker room and the front office. He has developed a close relationship with Luka Dončić, typically joining the team’s delegations to visit him each offseason in Slovenia. He has also been a respected voice involved in larger personnel decisions, such as Kidd’s and Harrison’s hirings in 2021, team sources say. In 2019, he was promoted to director of player health and performance.
Smith also is widely respected around the league and served as Team USA’s lead athletic trainer from 2005 to 2012. Dionne Calhoun, who has been the Mavericks’ head athletic trainer since 2019, will take Smith’s front-of-bench role this season, a team source said. Smith, whose name and title have appeared on the team’s recent training camp rosters, was omitted from Friday’s release.
Several team sources consider this decision to be a meaningful example of front office restructuring under Harrison, who was hired after former general manager Donnie Nelson’s departure. That summer, The Athletic reported on complicated front-office dynamics involving Nelson’s unstructured approach and the internal perception that Haralabos Voulgaris — who held the title of director of quantitative research and development — had influence over decision making beyond his role. Harrison, who previously worked as a Nike executive, was hired in part to bring more rigid structure to the team’s operation. He did not immediately respond Monday evening to a request for comment.
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While Harrison has kept most of the team’s non-executive front-office employees in place, he has made two notable hires from the Brooklyn Nets. Matt Riccardi, who served as Brooklyn’s director of scouting, was hired in 2022 and promoted to assistant general manager this summer, and Andrew Baker was hired in 2021 as the team’s senior director of salary cap and strategy. Dennis Lindsey, who ran the Utah Jazz’s front office from 2012 to 2021, also has joined the team this summer as a consultant.
(Photo: Glenn James / NBAE via Getty Images)
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