The Dallas Mavericks are finalizing an agreement to hire Dusty May away from Michigan as their next head coach, a move that would replace Jason Kidd and end a search that also included Micah Nori, Royal Ivey and Jama Mahlalelah. The decision comes as the Mavericks reshape the bench around Cooper Flagg, the 19-year-old reigning Rookie of the Year.
The search matters now because May is not the usual NBA coaching hire. He is 49, he has never coached in the league, and the Mavericks are moving toward a college-to-NBA leap at a time when the last team to make that kind of choice did it in 2019. Dallas also examined college candidates closely and heavily considered Jon Scheyer before turning toward May.
May’s case rests on the kind of turnaround that gets attention in any league. He led Michigan to a 64-13 record in two seasons after taking over a program that had just gone 8-24, then pushed it to 27-10 in his first year and 37-3 last season before the national championship in April. He also built a track record in the college ranks that runs from being a student manager under Bob Knight from 1996 to 2000 to assistant jobs at Eastern Michigan, Murray State, Alabama-Birmingham, Louisiana Tech and Florida before his first head coaching job at Florida Atlantic in 2018.
That résumé is why the Mavericks believe he can be a success story like Brad Stevens and Billy Donovan, two college coaches who moved to the NBA and were judged by whether their ideas carried over. Stevens left Butler for the Boston Celtics in 2013 and reached the playoffs in seven of his eight seasons there, while Donovan left Florida for the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2015. But the path is not clean. The last time Cleveland dipped into the college ranks, it hired John Beilein from Michigan, and he resigned 54 games into his tenure with a 14-40 record after a rough fit that never took hold.
That is the risk Dallas is weighing as it changes direction after deciding to part ways with Kidd, even with four years and more than $40 million left on his contract. The coaching change came after sign-off from Patrick Dumont, and it leaves the Mavericks betting that May’s age, resume and ability to connect with younger players can translate to a roster built around Flagg. The only thing left is the formal completion of the agreement, which would make the college coach’s jump to Dallas official and answer whether Micah Nori was ever more than an interview in a wider search.
