All season long, as Michigan kept racking up wins with a roster on which multiple players developed into likely lottery picks, a number of NBA front offices had their eyes on Wolverines head coach Dusty May as a potential target.
Dallas got him.
May is leaving Michigan after leading the team to a national title to become the new head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, a story broken by Shams Charania, Adam Schefter and Pete Thamel of ESPN and confirmed by multiple other reports. This is a huge win for the new Dallas head of basketball operations, Masai Ujiri.
May replaces Jason Kidd, whom Ujiri let go despite $40 million remaining on his contract.
May jumps to one of the most coveted open jobs in the NBA coaching realm because the Mavericks have Cooper Flagg to build around. They also have Kyrie Irving (returning from a torn ACL) and Klay Thompson as the veteran All-Stars on the roster, plus a quality front line with Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II.
May, 49, took over a Wolverines team that had lost a program-record 24 games the season before he took over and led an impressive turnaround. He led the team to a 64-13 record in those two seasons, with two Big Ten titles and, last season, a national championship. He developed three Michigan players — Yaxel Lendeborg, Morez Johnson Jr. and Aday Mara — who are expected to go in the lottery (or at least the top 20) in this year’s NBA Draft. Prior to that, May led Florida Atlantic to the Final Four in 2023.
Ujiri reportedly looked at several college coaches, including Duke’s Jon Scheyer and Florida’s Todd Golden, and wanted to bring back former Dallas assistant coach (then San Antonio assistant) Sean Sweeney, but Sweeney chose to take the Orlando coaching job.
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