{"id":346678,"date":"2026-06-23T05:54:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/346678\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T05:54:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:54:29","slug":"why-mavericks-coach-dusty-may-could-be-the-nbas-next-brad-stevens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/346678\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Mavericks coach Dusty May could be the NBA’s next Brad Stevens"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Head<\/p>\n

Head coach Dusty May of the Michigan Wolverines celebrates after defeating the\u00a0UConn Huskies 69-63 in the National Championship of the 2026 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium on April 06, 2026 in Indianapolis, Indiana.<\/p>\n

Michael Reaves\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The last time\u00a0a Michigan basketball coach went straight to the pros<\/a>, John\u00a0Beilein lasted all of 54 games with Cleveland before deciding the NBA was adversely affecting his health, not to mention his winning percentage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So what makes the Mavs think Dusty May<\/a> will fare any better?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because it\u2019s a bad comparison.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Think Brad Stevens, instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Look, let me say upfront that I\u2019m just glad Masai Ujiri <\/a>got the hire out of the way before they were on the clock for Tuesday\u2019s draft. As I wrote recently<\/a>, it seemed like the new guy should at least have a say in who they\u2019re drafting if it\u2019s his W-L percentage on the line.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By the way: You think May might have a scouting report on potential lottery picks Aday Mara, Yaxel Lendeborg and Morez Johnson Jr., all of whom helped him to Michigan\u2019s first national title since 1989? \u00a0<\/p>\n

Related: Michigan’s Dusty May to become next head coach of the Dallas Mavericks<\/a><\/p>\n

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Before we get to their prospects, let\u2019s first take a look at just the 11th head coach in Mavs history, unless you count Dick Motta twice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking of which, like Motta, May didn\u2019t play college basketball. He was Indiana\u2019s student manager during Bobby Knight\u2019s last four years in Bloomington, which is probably worth a couple thousand words in its own right.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once out of college, it took May four years before he even got a job as an assistant coach back at his alma mater, which isn\u2019t so unusual for a former student manager. The lack of pedigree forces you to work even harder. Sharpens your edge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

May\u2019s unconventional career path, in fact, mirrors in part one of his bosses. Mike Schmitz<\/a>, the new general manager,\u00a0was also a video guy who worked as a draft analyst for ESPN before going to work for the Trail Blazers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What these pivotal hires say about Ujiri and his plans for the Mavs is hard to say just yet, but at the least, it indicates he\u2019s willing to think outside the box.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Frankly, I figured he\u2019d hire a first-time head coach at this late date, but not one who\u2019d just won an NCAA title. Ujiri hired two assistants while in Toronto. The difference this time indicates not only a change in approach but another financial commitment from the new owners, who apparently subscribe to the theory that, in order to make money, you\u2019ve got to spend some.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Does this give you an ideas, Ray Davis?\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the day back in Ann Arbor when Michigan celebrated its national title, Warde Manuel, the Wolverines\u2019 athletic director, announced to an apoplectic gathering that he and the conquering hero had come to an agreement on May\u2019s second contract extension in as many years on the job. The deal, through 2030, reportedly averaged $5.1 million a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will be the leader of this basketball team,\u201d Manuel said, \u201cfor many years to come.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

First rule of contract announcements: Always make sure the coach has actually signed it first.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Rumors had circulated for weeks that May might be intrigued by the NBA. He\u2019d won a title, and he\u2019d taken Florida Atlantic to the Final Four before that. In Juwan Howard\u2019s final, fateful season, the Wolverines had gone 8-24. What else did May need to do to prove himself? He\u2019s also 49. If you think you might consider a career change at some point, doing it before you\u2019re 50 is probably better than waiting until you\u2019re 67, like Beilein did.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Besides a reputation as a bright tactician, May got bonus points for last year\u2019s portal class, which included the lottery picks mentioned above. You could say May maximized their potential.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before Michigan, the closest any of the three were linked to a lottery was at the checkout stand of their local convenience store.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even if none of May\u2019s Wolverines end up in Dallas, don\u2019t be surprised if the national championship roster he built bears some resemblance to his new one in Dallas, at least in size. Big is the way to go these days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hats off to\u00a0Jalen Brunson, king of New York<\/a>, but I have seen the future, and he is down in San Antonio peeking over the\u00a0Alamo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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If you want to survive in the West, much less the NBA, you\u2019d better be big. For that reason, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if Ujiri doesn\u2019t trade up if he doesn\u2019t think he can get the big guard he wants at nine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Or he might trade down, if he decides to take a flyer on, say, Mara.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the whole, the last time I was this impressed with a college basketball coach was at the Final Four in Houston in 2011, when Stevens led little Butler to its second straight national title game. He didn\u2019t win it all, but he left soon after for Boston, where he changed the trajectory of a proud franchise that had lost its way. Over the next eight seasons, the Celtics advanced to the conference finals three times before Stevens moved up to the front office, at which point he commenced building the best organization in the East.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From where the Mavs sit now, I\u2019d take something along those lines. Then again, we\u2019ve built up a lot of scar tissue lately.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Head coach Dusty May of the Michigan Wolverines celebrates after defeating the\u00a0UConn Huskies 69-63 in the National Championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2353,102,104,103,88840,97216],"class_list":["post-346678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-commentary","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-dallas-mavericks","tag-tp-nba-draft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}