Rick Welts retiring, Ethan Casson takes over Mavericks

This isn't a front office blowing up. It's a handoff the Mavs have been setting up for over a year, and the people covering the team called it that way.

Marc Stein

@TheSteinLine

The Mavericks say CEO Rick Welts, who was lured out of retirement in December 2024 to lead the team’s new arena project, will step down at year’s end and be succeeded by former Timberwolves and 49ers CEO Ethan Casson on Jan. 1, 2027. Welts, 73, is a 2018 @Hoophall inductee who previously worked for the Warriors, Suns and league office dating the 1980s.

Welts has one of the best résumés on the business side in NBA history. He's a 2018 Hall of Famer who worked for the Suns, the Warriors and the league office going back to the 1980s. He was retired when Dallas hired him in December 2024 to replace Cynthia Marshall. The Mavs wanted him for one reason: as Golden State's president and COO, he helped oversee the building of Chase Center, and Dallas wants a new arena of its own. Welts started on Jan. 1, 2025, and he has since said he only agreed to give it 2 years. He's leaving right on that schedule.

Casson was always the planned successor. Governor Patrick Dumont hired him as team president in July 2025, putting him right under Welts. Before that, Casson was CEO of the Timberwolves, the Lynx and the G League's Iowa Wolves, and he also had a stint in the 49ers front office. On Jan. 1 he becomes CEO and alternate governor. Clark's summary is about as simple as it gets: the No. 2 on the business side moves up to No. 1.

Christian Clark

@christianpclark

The Mavericks announce that Rick Welts will retire as CEO at the end of this year. Ethan Casson, the No. 2 on the Mavs' business side, will step into that role on Jan. 1. Welts came to Dallas to oversee the team's new arena project.

Welts called the transition as well-planned and orchestrated as anything an NBA organization has ever done. That's a big claim, but it's hard to argue with. They hired the successor, gave him more than a year under the Hall of Famer, and then announced the date. That's a very different look from the chaos Mavs fans have dealt with on the basketball side lately.

The real story is still the arena. Dallas's lease at American Airlines Center runs to July 28, 2031, and that date sets the pace for everything. Welts was brought in to get the new building moving. Now Casson owns that project, plus everything else on the business side, while the arena (and the casino the ownership group has pushed alongside it) is still being worked out. When Welts stops in 2 months, the question is whether the momentum keeps going without the guy who already built a new arena once.