Hornets to Interview Mavs Assistant For Head Coach Position

Could Jason Kidd potentially lose a key piece of his stellar Dallas Mavericks coaching staff?

After initially being met with a lot of skepticism last summer, the hiring of Jason Kidd has turned out about as well as anyone with the Dallas Mavericks could’ve hoped for. The team finished with a 52-30 record in the regular season and advanced past the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 2011.

However, as much praise and recognition as Kidd deserves for his lead role, his stellar coaching staff deserves a lot of credit as well — perhaps most of all, Sean Sweeney, whose defensive strategies helped turned the Mavs into a top-10 defensive team this season after being in the bottom-10 last season.

According to a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnaroski, Sweeney seems to have gotten the attention of the Charlotte Hornets, who recently parted ways with James Borrego after the team went 43-39 and missed the playoffs.

“(Mike) D'Antoni will meet with the Hornets along with several current assistant coaches whom Charlotte requested permission to speak to, including Golden State's Kenny Atkinson, Milwaukee's Darvin Ham and Dallas' Sean Sweeney, sources said,” wrote Wojnaroski. “All three of those assistants are currently coaching in the playoffs.”

With Sweeney on their list, the Hornets are probably wondering if he can do for them what he’s helped do for the Mavs on defense. Charlotte had the eighth-best offensive rating this season, but also had the eighth-worst defensive rating.

You can be one of the best scoring teams in the league, but unless you have a good defense to go with the offense, you won’t get far — just ask the post-2011 Mavs teams that Rick Carlisle coached.

Whether Sweeney advances further in the Hornets’ search for a new head coach or not, he will likely finish out this postseason run with the Mavs before doing anything else. Dallas is currently down 1-0 in its second-round series against the league-best Phoenix Suns.