Dusty May to the NBA: Brilliant move or massive risk?
The day before the NBA draft often emerges as a time when trades seemingly get finalized and announced but on Monday morning it also turned out some unexpected coaching news.
And the news was a massive surprise on the surface when reports of Dusty May leaving Michigan to coach the Dallas Mavericks. Perhaps the biggest surprise was May leaving a team who dominated five NCAA tournament games before winning the national title with a six-point win over UCONN for a team coming off a 26-56 finish.
May is joining a team that based on possessing Cooper Flagg and Kyrie Irving as its first two scoring options should not finish 26-56.
Who is May replacing as Mavericks coach?
May is replacing Jason Kidd, who was removed by new president Masai Ujiri last month. In a funny coincidence Ujiri ran the Raptors when Kidd coached the 2013-14 Nets in a memorable seven-game first-round series before trying to usurp Billy King in the front office.
May is joining a team with a new front office in GM Mike Schmitz, who was an NBA draft analyst before working for the Trail Blazers. Ujiri was hired as team president for Dallas on May 4, nearly a year after his memorable 12-year run in charge of the Raptors ended.
The Mavericks are coming off consecutive losing seasons, and each season was defined by Anthony Davis' presence or lack of it.
In Flagg's rookie season, the Mavericks stunned the world by trading Luka Doncic to the Lakers for the injury-prone Davis. Davis got injured in his first game with the Lakers in 2025 and only played 29 games with the Mavericks before being shipped to Washington at last year's trade deadline.
Flagg enjoyed a stellar rookie season by averaging 21 points. His first 70 NBA games included a 51-point showing against Orlando on April 3 and four 40-point games.
None of Flagg's games were played with Kyrie Irving, who sat out last season recovering from a torn ACL in his left knee. Irving has played 128 games with Dallas since being acquired in 2023 from Brooklyn, where he only appeared in 143 games due to numerous reasons.
Will the Mavericks draft any of May's players from Michigan?
As of now, the Mavericks own the ninth pick in the lottery, and numerous mock drafts say they will pick Arizona's Brayden Burris to join Irving in the backcourt as a shooting guard.
May's national title was won with three projected first-rounders in Aday Mara, Yaxel Lendeborg, and Morez Johnson Jr. All three are frontcourt players, and Dallas still has PJ Washington as its highest-paid frontcourt player at the moment.
Mara, Lendeborg, and Johnson have been projected to go between picks 11 through 14 in a few mock drafts, but with May on board, it will be interesting to see if the Mavericks take a player he knows best.
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How have college coaches done in the NBA?
For those old enough to remember it, May jumping to the NBA after a national title is reminiscent of 1988, when Larry Brown won a national title with Kansas and went to the Spurs. Brown won 21 games in 1988-89 while waiting for David Robinson to finish a commitment with the Naval Academy, and won 101 games in the next two seasons before jumping ship 38 games into the 1991-92 season.
May is unlikely to be like Brown, who coached nine NBA teams and earned the moniker "Next Town Brown". The only similarity the Mavs are hoping for is May eventually joining Brown as the second to win titles in college and the NBA.
Billy Donovan won consecutive titles with Florida in 2006 and 2007 before coaching the Thunder from 2015-2020 and the past six seasons with the Bulls. His best season was a 55-win showing in Kevin Durant's last season in Oklahoma City and a run of mediocrity with the Bulls.
In New York, the Knicks and Nets have some experience with college coaches in the pros.
Rick Pitino started the Knicks' run of 14 straight playoff seasons in 1987-88 before going to Kentucky in 1989. After winning a national title with Kentucky in 1996, he went to the Boston Celtics, where it did not go well, and he resigned in 2000 before returning to college, where he is currently successfully turning around St. John's.
Before John Calipari coached Memphis, Kentucky, and Arkansas, he was a hot coaching commodity after getting UMass to the 1996 Final Four. Calipari's rise with an Atlantic 10 school led the Nets to hire him, but he went 72-112 and exited the NBA 20 games into the 1998-99 season.
Others of late to jump levels include Brad Stevens. Stevens' star rose when he led Butler to consecutive appearances in the title game against Duke and UCONN in 2010-11.
His emergence for a mid-major program led the Celtics to hire him in 2013. While his coaching tenure through 2021 did not net a title, he oversaw a team successfully rebuilt after the Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen era and was aided by getting Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum as lottery picks thanks to the infamous trade from Brooklyn.
Stevens has been the president of basketball operations for the Celtics since 2021 and owns an NBA title in 2024. Now he may or may not be on the verge of acquiring Giannis Antetokounmpo from Milwaukee.
The track record of college coaches to the pros is mixed but based on how recent seasons unfolded for the Mavericks, they are banking on May to return them to prominence in the always competitive Western Conference.
Related: Cooper Flagg Wins Rookie of the Year in 2nd-Closest Finish in Over 20 Years
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This story was originally published June 22, 2026 at 2:07 PM.