Dennis Lindsey, the Detroit Pistons’ president of basketball operations and a former Nico Harrison advisor, reportedly “would be interested in” returning to Dallas as general manager, according to reports.
NBA insider Marc Stein reported on Sunday that the Mavericks’ former senior advisor was the team’s “only known external candidate” for the open general manager position after Harrison was fired last week
.Lindsey served in an advisory role to the Harrison-led front office during the 2023-24 season
before being hired by the Pistons in July 2024. Before that, Lindsey helped build the Utah Jazz during the Donovan Mitchell-Rudy Gobert era, serving as Jazz general manager from 2012-2021.
Many have speculated that it may have been Lindsey, not necessarily Harrison, who championed the trades for Daniel Gafford and P.J. Washington at the 2023-24 season trade deadline, which ultimately helped the Mavericks reach the NBA Finals that season. The chatter at the time was that Lindsey also may have been the loudest voice in giving Dante Exum another shot as a league-minimum contract at guard. Then, the team let Lindsey get away the following offseason.
He is thought of as one of the top executives in the NBA. Since Lindsey joined the Pistons’ front office, Detroit has undergone a dramatic turnaround in the Eastern Conference standings. Though the inflection point for the Pistons may have happened before Lindsey got the GM job, he did have a hand in Detroit adding pieces like Caris LeVert and Duncan Robinson, who have both thrived since joining the team. The Pistons tied an NBA record with 28 consecutive losses from Oct. 30 through Dec. 30, 2023, but now sit atop the Eastern Conference standings with an 11-2 record.
Lindsey has a feel for roster construction like few other NBA execs. Making a winner of the Utah Jazz before having a hand in the Pistons’ turnaround should position him as a front-runner in the Mavericks’ search, as the team now finds itself in NBA Roster Construction Hell.
If there is one man with the right touch to bring about, not just change, but the right kind of change to a Mavs’ roster that looks in retrospect like it was built by a very dumb man having a very loud tantrum, that man is Lindsey.
Though Lindsey’s short tenure in the Mavericks’ front office overlapped with Harrison’s time as GM, Lindsey is not “a Harrison guy” by any means. He is ruthlessly analytical in his approach — not guided by whims and not as prone to let personality conflicts get in the way of the right moves.
