For the first time since 2019, an NBA team is dipping into the college ranks to land its next head coach.
The Dallas Mavericks are finalizing an agreement to hire Dusty May away from Michigan, the school May led to a 64-13 record in two seasons and a national championship in April. The decision comes a little more than seven years after the Cleveland Cavaliers hired John Beilein, who was also at Michigan.
Beilein’s time in Cleveland famously went poorly. The college lifer struggled to connect with younger players on a rebuilding Cleveland team. During one film session, he allegedly told Cavaliers players they were no longer playing “like a bunch of thugs.” Beilein later said he meant to use the word “slugs,” and he resigned 54 games into his tenure with a 14-40 record.
From Beilein to John Calipari to Fred Hoiberg, among others, there’s been no shortage of big-name college coaches who have flopped while trying to transition to the NBA. But NCAA and NBA sources who spoke with The Athletic consistently said they believe that May has what it takes to make the leap.
Those sources were granted anonymity so they could speak freely, and “modern,” “collaborative” and “adaptable” were all words used to describe May, a Terre Haute, Ind., native. So was the word “kind,” which might seem strange for someone who got his start working as a student manager for the rough-edged Bob Knight at Indiana.
May worked as a student manager under Knight from 1996 to 2000, the start of his three-decade college basketball journey. As an assistant, May had stops at Eastern Michigan (2005-06), Murray State (2006-07), Alabama-Birmingham (2007-09), Louisiana Tech (2009-15) and Florida (2015-18). He got his first head coaching job at Florida Atlantic in 2018, and led the Owls to their first Final Four. That set the stage for May to land at Michigan.
The Wolverines were coming off an 8-24 season when they hired May, and immediately saw major improvement. They went 27-10 in May’s first season and tore through college basketball last season with a 37-3 record.
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All of that helped convince Mavericks decision-makers that May could be the next college-to-NBA success story, like Brad Stevens — who left Butler for the Boston Celtics in 2013 and reached the playoffs in seven of his eight seasons as head coach there — and Billy Donovan — who departed Florida for the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2015.
May has a reservoir of coaching experience and is a talented relationship-builder who, at 49, is still young enough to connect with teenagers and early 20-somethings. That’s critical in Dallas, where everything revolves around Cooper Flagg, the 19-year-old reigning Rookie of the Year.
The Mavericks were in the market for a head coach because newly installed president Masai Ujiri decided this spring that it was best for the team to part ways with Jason Kidd. Ujiri received sign-off from Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont to make a change, even though Kidd had four years and more than $40 million remaining on his contract.
The Mavericks interviewed NBA assistant coaches Micah Nori, Royal Ivey and Jama Mahlalelah, league sources said, while also closely examining the college ranks. Duke’s Jon Scheyer was one name the Mavericks heavily considered. In fact, their interest in him pre-dated Ujiri’s arrival, league sources said.
Scheyer has a strong personal relationship with Flagg. They hit golf balls at a driving range on the same day Flagg committed to play for Duke. However, a reunion wasn’t in the cards, as Scheyer, who has a 124-25 record at Duke but has yet to reach a national title game, wasn’t ready to leave for the NBA, league sources said.
With Scheyer still wanting to accomplish more at Duke, the Mavericks quietly made a push for May. He and Michigan verbally agreed to a contract extension after the season but had not finalized the deal. And while Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel publicly insisted in April that May would be “the leader of this basketball team for many years to come,” May clearly had eyes for the NBA.
In coaching circles, the Mavericks’ job was considered appealing because of Flagg’s presence. The Mavericks are expected to go into next season with Flagg and Kyrie Irving as cornerstones. They control the Nos. 9, 30 and 48 selections in this week’s NBA Draft.
They have discussed a variety of trade-back scenarios, including one, according to league sources, that would net Dallas the No. 16 pick that Memphis currently controls. Three Michigan players who suited up for May last season — Aday Mara, Morez Johnson Jr. and Yaxel Lendeborg — are expected to be first-round picks Tuesday.
In the college ranks, May won by playing a variety of ways. Short, speedy guards populated his 2022-23 Florida Atlantic team that went 35-4 and reached the Final Four. Conversely, his title team at Michigan was full of giants, with the 6-foot-9 Johnson, 6-foot-9 Lendeborg and 7-foot-3 Mara all starting.
“I think sometimes whenever you win, like we did this year, you think you have the secret sauce or the formula,” May said last month. “We’re never going to be a program that’s playing the same way 30 years from now as we do today, just because that’s what we know.”
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May is flexible and always looking for an edge. As an assistant at Eastern Michigan in 2005, he began listening to opposing coaches’ radio appearances so he could scout their teams, a habit that’s stuck with him.
The Mavericks believe May is uniquely wired to be the next great NBA coach to come from the college ranks, someone who has the aptitude and temperament to mimic Stevens’ success as opposed to some of the hard-charging names — like Beilein — who weren’t able to make the jump.
