Former assistant coach in Dallas and rising prodigy Sean Sweeney has been hired by the Orlando Magic.
The Orlando Magic have now hired two former Dallas Mavericks assistants in their last two head coach moves.
After letting go of Jamahl Mosley earlier this offseason, reports on Friday indicate that the Magic are nearing an agreement with San Antonio Spurs associate head coach and former Mavs assistant Sean Sweeney to be the next head man in Orlando.
Mosley, who was on Rick Carlisle's staff in Dallas from 2014-2021, was fired by the Orlando Magic after his first head coaching gig lasted five seasons (2021-2026).
Sweeney was Jason Kidd's top assistant for the first four years of his stint in Dallas, taking over the defensive coordinator duties of Mosley while Kidd, a Hall of Fame point guard in his playing days, handled an offensive focus.
Like Mosley, Sweeney's reputation grew with the Mavericks, though it didn't take a head coaching change to lead him to a relocation.
Sweeney joined the San Antonio Spurs' staff this season to be an associate head coach under Mitch Johnson, who has fully taken over the organization from Hall of Famer Gregg Popovich.
Of course, Sweeney's departure wasn't the only major alteration to the Mavs' personnel over the last two seasons ... and Dallas' record this season serves as proof of how that's going. With the team now parting ways with Kidd, president Masai Ujiri is tasked with finding the next architect of a roster that is headlined by Rookie of the Year Cooper Flagg.
Many thought Sweeney to be an ideal candidate, as he's among the hottest names in the "next generation" of rising coaches searching for their first head job.
We believe, however, that he never thought of Dallas as an option. His departure last offseason was reason enough to believe that he had purposely found a new home elsewhere after questionable Mavericks leadership impacted the team's future (and that's putting it lightly).
"It's worth noting that his divorce from the Mavericks was messy," our Jonah Kubicek said last week. "He was one of the first folks to jump ship after the Mavs traded Luka Doncic away to the Los Angeles Lakers. In the Spurs' season opener against Dallas back in October, Sweeney helped coach the Spurs to a blowout 125-92 win at the American Airlines Center.
"During the game, he was wearing the Luka 5, the latest signature shoe from the former Mavericks' superstar. Not exactly a subtle message!"
In San Antonio, the pair of Johnson and Sweeney has the Spurs one win away from a berth in the NBA Finals.
That success is largely thanks to Sweeney, the architect of arguably the NBA's best defense, starring the NBA's first-ever unanimous Defensive Player of the Year, Victor Wembanyama.
Of the Spurs' major pieces, there isn't one who is a defensive liability. They face a Game 7 test in Oklahoma City against the defending-champion Thunder, but San Antonio's strides this year - winning 62 games and posting the third-best defensive rating in the regular season - made Sweeney an obvious candidate to become a first-time head coach in this cycle.
He agrees to that opportunity with the Orlando Magic, where he'll report as soon as the Spurs' season is over.
