Longtime Mavericks executive Michael Finley, who ran the team’s front office alongside Matt Riccardi for most of last season as a co-general manager, will transition to a new role this fall under new president Masai Ujiri, the team announced today in a press release.
Finley’s new title is senior director of player, community and alumni engagement. In that position, he’ll “provide support to the front office and focus on strengthening relationships among Mavericks players, alumni, and the North Texas community,” per the club.
Amidst a summer of change in Dallas, Finley had been one of the few holdovers from the former regime. He has been in the Mavericks’ front office since 2013 and was an assistant GM under former president of basketball operations Nico Harrison.
Finley’s reassignment was one of several basketball operations updates provided by the Mavs on Thursday. The team also announced that Nico Berg has been named the organization’s executive director of health and performance, confirming recent reporting from Marc Stein.
Additionally, Tim Chung has been hired away from the Grizzlies as Dallas’ new director of basketball operations, while longtime Raptors staffer Patrick Engelbrecht, who worked with Ujiri in Toronto, will be the Mavs’ vice president of global talent identification and international affairs. Like Engelbrecht, Chung worked for the Raptors before his stint in Memphis.
Here are a few more of the most notable changes:
Former Bucks staffer Ijeoma Ofomata has joined the Mavericks as the team’s manager of scouting and the assistant general manager for the Texas Legends, Dallas’ G League affiliate.
As Stein previously reported, former Raptors executive Matt Redfield has been appointed to an assistant GM role, while Blaise Ross has joined the team from the NBA league office as the senior director of basketball salary cap and strategy.
Joe Touomou, the former technical director of NBA Academy Africa, has been hired as the Mavs’ director of Africa/player development and scouting.
The full list of updates can be viewed within the Mavs’ press release.