The Dallas Mavericks are looking to get back to the top of the Western Conference with Cooper Flagg as their centerpiece, and now they have made a massive swing to get him an elite head coach. The Mavs have hired Dusty May away from Michigan basketball to lead the team in 2026-27 and beyond, per ESPN's Shams Charania.
The Mavericks made the somewhat surprising decision to move on from head coach Jason Kidd after a disappointing 2025-26 campaign, with new team president Masai Ujiri clearly wanting to pick his own guy. Now, he has one of the best in the college ranks making the jump to the NBA.
May has been a coach at the college level for two decades, beginning as an assistant at Eastern Michigan all the way back in 2005. However, he has no NBA coaching experience, even as an assistant, so this is a big risk that the Mavs are taking.
Still, May's resume as a basketball coach speaks for itself. He has been arguably the most successful college head coach of the 2020s and is coming off of a dominant national title run with the Wolverines. He is 190-82 overall as a head coach during his time with Florida Atlantic and Michigan and finished with a sparkling 64-13 record in two seasons in Ann Arbor.
May's time as a college head coach proved that when he has the talent to field a winning team, his teams will be very successful. He led Florida Atlantic on an improbable run to the Final Four in 2023, coming within one shot of the title game at the end of a 35-4 campaign.
Of course, the question will be whether May can adapt to the NBA game and to coaching professionals. The Mavericks have a bright future with a superstar in the making in Flagg, and they're hoping that May is the man to lead them back to championship contention. If he can find his college success at the NBA level, this will be a home run hire for the Mavericks.
