Welcome to Ceiling/Floor, where we dissect trades, signings, firings and hirings in order to determine the best case and worst case scenarios. Today, the Dallas Mavericks hire Dusty May as their new head coach.
BREAKING: University of Michigan coach Dusty May has agreed to become the new head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, sources tell me, @AdamSchefter, @PeteThamel. Major college-to-pro jump for the 2026 NCAA championship coach and swing for the Mavericks and Masai Ujiri. pic.twitter.com/rwlwhRtNfo
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 22, 2026
Ceiling
Dusty May won a championship, like, the other day. I like hiring coaches with recent success. Makes that meritocracy lie feel legit for a cup of coffee.
Dallas won 26 games last season.
Michigan won 37.
Dusty May is overqualified.
Cooper Flagg is still a teenager and locked into Dallas for the foreseeable future.
New team president Masai Ujiri’s already built a championship roster once. After watching the Knicks win the title, teams like the Mavs have to feel like they’re 10 hot weeks away from the Promised Land and maybe hiring a coach who just sprinted through an insane March Madness tournament has the secret formula in a manila folder somewhere.
And speaking of secret formulas, some of May’s players are projected lottery picks, which means he’s been on the phone with other teams, giving out recommendations before their big job interviews, so May knows what the other GMs are planning to do in this draft.
The Dallas Mavericks have the 9th and 30th picks in the 2026 NBA Draft this week. This team can move around and get cute, knowing they just hired a guy whose cup runneth over in foreign intel.
Floor
If you’re a Dallas Mavericks fan, your 2018 point guard draft class is having the most success of their lives the second they change zip codes. Luka leading the NBA in scoring, sporting purple and gold and Jalen Brunson holding the Finals MVP over his head on Broadway, it would be easy to point out that Dusty May would be the first college coach to jump to the NBA since John Beilein took over the Cavs in 2019.
Beilein went 14-40, resigned after telling his players in a film session, they were “no longer playing like a bunch of thugs”.
May is the first college coach fresh off a Natty to jump right to the NBA since Larry Brown in 1988.
This is historic.
It feels like it happens more often, but nah, front offices separate church and state; they do not hire college coaches.
Probably for good reason.
The San Francisco Giants are misbehaving right now, no respect for their little college skipper.
This Dusty May hire is Hail Mary adjacent and Dallas just wasted years of Cooper Flagg’s development for a guy who can only instruct little boys.
According To Vince Goodwill, NBA Championships Are Now “Participation Trophies”
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