Dusty May makes the jump from college to the NBA as the Mavericks’ new head coach
After an active offseason of coaching moves, six teams have new head coaches this season.
This group includes three coaches who are NBA head coaches for the first time in their career: Dusty May in Dallas, Micah Nori in Portland and Sean Sweeney in Orlando.
Before they each open their first training camps with their respective teams, here’s a look at what the three first-time NBA head coaches are focused on this season.
Dusty May, Dallas Mavericks
May is a new face within the NBA coaching fraternity. Unlike the other five new coaches this season, May takes the head coaching job in Dallas without any previous NBA experience as either a head coach or an assistant.
Instead, May cut his coaching chops in the collegiate ranks, reaching the Final Four with Florida Atlantic in 2023 and then returning to the Final Four with Michigan in 2026, going on to win the NCAA championship. After cutting down the nets in April, he was hired by Dallas in June, eager to take the next step in his coaching journey.
On his path to becoming an NBA head coach:
“As a coach in my early 20s, I started traveling and watching a training camp each season. So I remember watching Hubie Brown in Memphis, going to see Scott Skiles in Chicago. Try to spend a week each year in NBA training camp because I was fascinated by the best teachers in the game. I never thought that would be an option. There were opportunities early in my career, of getting in a video room at a couple different organizations. But because of the trajectory of my college career, I decided to stay on that path.
“And the last couple years after FAU going to the Final Four, I started getting some conversations. At that point, I thought I’d probably need to go be an assistant before I could ever become an NBA head coach, and then it just kind of happened. This was always something that I dreamed of doing. I didn’t know if it would be a possibility, but it had always been in the back of my mind, and I’d always watched an obsessive amount of NBA basketball.”
On what he’s seen in Cooper Flagg and his upside:
“Especially when you factor in that he’s only 19 years old and the way he operates on a daily basis as far as his unselfishness, being a team first guy, he’s just scratching their surface. I think about how good a passer he is. How capable he is as a rebounder. I think he’s just a guy that can impact the game in every way, and I think there’ll be a lot of triple-doubles in his near future.”
On having a healthy Kyrie Irving:
“It’s not only the electricity with the basketball in his hands, he’s so adept at playing off the ball, but most importantly, I’ve been blown away at his IQ, his understanding of the game, his physicality. You don’t realize how strong he is, and we know how quick he is and his finishing ability. But the way he thinks the game and the way he has a solution for anything, we’re going to lean on him as a young group to help us.”
On first-round pick Morez Johnson Jr. whom he coached at Michigan:
“Someone in our front office described Morez in the best way, that there’s no game that he can be played out of, meaning sometimes 7-foot-3 guys will be played out of the playoff game because of their inability to cover the perimeter. Wherever the case, there is no game that he can be played off on the floor. His relentless approach, he has no off switch. Every minute is relentless energy, and so he’ll have to check a lot of boxes for us this year as far as energy and toughness.”
Micah Nori, Portland Trail Blazers
After 17 seasons as an assistant coach with the Raptors, Kings, Nuggets, Pistons — and the last five with the Timberwolves — Nori takes on his first head coaching job with the Portland Trail Blazers.
He inherits a team coming off a playoff run and getting a boost in backcourt talent with the return of Damian Lillard and arrival of Ja Morant, ready to take the lessons he’s learned from many mentors and apply them on his own team.
On the mentors in his career that shaped his philosophy on the game:
“I’ve been very lucky. It’s been 27 years in this league. A lot of good head coaches, 13 of them, and then worked with four NBA Coach of the Years: Sam Mitchell, Dwane Casey, Lenny Wilkens, going back to George Karl. So a lot of good people I’ve been around and taken something from all of them. Butch Carter was the one that hired me originally in Toronto. I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that a lot of stuff comes from him. But then Kevin O’Neill, some defensive stuff. Sam Mitchell had to do with dealing with players. Lenny Wilkens, I mean, the legend himself; George Karl, Michael Malone, Chris Finch. I mean, the list goes on and on, and I’d have to be a moron if I didn’t take something from all those guys.”
On the style he wants to implement with the Blazers:
“Number one, effort, energy. At the defensive end of the floor, just want to make sure we’re very, very aggressive defensively, and making people miss rather than hoping they miss, and impacting there, holding teams to one shot. All those things everybody talks about. Then getting out and run.
“The one thing that we do have, everybody talks about, we have a lot of smalls. So just to make sure we spread the floor, get out, play with a lot of pace, share the basketball. We have a lot of guys that we have a lot of willing passers. For lack of a better term, a fun brand to watch, and just the way the basketball is supposed to be played … an unselfish, hard-playing team that really gets after the defensive end of the floor.”
On adding Lillard and Morant, and how they’ll help returning All-Star Deni Avdija:
“Adding Dame, who is obviously a perennial All-Star, then getting a talent in Ja, who’s had some injuries of late, I think we’re going to get the best version of both of those guys, which is great. …
“The way that Deni has been able to show how he can get himself downhill, and the way he gets himself to the free throw line, and he’s another guy that is a willing passer as well. He does draw a crowd, and now with Dame coming back and being able to put some shooting around him and some more playmakers, it should just open up the floor even more for him.”
On his expectations for Scoot Henderson:
“With Scoot, it’s like an old adage that Dwane Casey used to say: it’s easier to say ‘Whoa!’ than ‘Giddy up!’ and he’s a guy that plays full force and just and really with a lot of pace at the offensive end. But the steps and strides that he made at the defensive end, getting into the basketball, being able to get into and over screens and impact at that end has been great. I look for Scoot to take a huge jump this season for sure.”
On the defensive talent parallels he sees between his former team and new team:
“It’s funny because it’s very familiar to just the situation I just came from in Minnesota, where we had Rudy [Gobert] protecting the rim. You also have Donovan [Clingan], who’s a very good defender. You have Jaden McDaniels, who’s an elite wing defender, and [Toumani] Camara’s right there as well. And then you add Jrue [Holiday], who’s a lot like Anthony Edwards. So, a lot of good defensive players that we have there in Portland who are also good two-way players.”
Sean Sweeney, Orlando Magic
It has been a two-decade journey for Sweeney to get his first NBA head coaching opportunity. From video coordinator to multiple assistant coaching jobs to associate head coach last season in San Antonio, Sweeney’s odyssey has culminated in Orlando.
He takes over a team that has averaged 44 wins and reached the playoffs in each of the past three seasons, but has stalled in the postseason. Sweeney’s recent teams have found playoff success, with the 2024 Mavs and 2026 Spurs reaching the NBA Finals.
On what he takes away from his experience at the NBA Finals:
“Going to The Finals is something that you feel very fortunate about being there. All the games are very competitive down to the wire, and it reminds you how close everything is. And it reminds you how important it is to have great players, guys competing at the highest level, making sure that they do the best job with execution, especially when it gets to that critical time of the game. But just overall, being there, being in San Antonio, very grateful for everything that was afforded to me there.”
On his coaching mentors and influences:
“I spent a number of years working for Jason Kidd, and owe him a debt of gratitude. Learned a lot from him, both how he coached players, how he coached the staff … Worked for Avery Johnson with the New Jersey and Brooklyn Nets: owe him quite a bit; he’s the one that helped me get into the NBA. Spent a lot of time learning from him. Dwane Casey, someone that I worked for for a number of years in Detroit, who really helped me.
“Throughout my whole time in the NBA, probably the person who meant the most to me in my coaching journey and impacted me the most is Tim Grgurich. Throughout that course of time, we were together for over 12 years, he’s really, really special to me and impacted how I see the game, how I see coaching, how I see this teaching profession, and then also the competition piece. What it means to really compete to win each day.”
On his vision for Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero offensively:
“Versatility is something that immediately stands out. We talk about Franz, his ability to handle the ball, make good decisions, and also he’s a competitive offensive player. He’s competitive defensively. He’s competitive offensively. I think that’s something that we can leverage with him. Then with Paolo, his ability to score the basketball is something that everybody sees with size and strength. But one of the things that he’s shown the ability to do, is pass the basketball as well. I think both those guys can be put in different areas on the floor, and allow for us to be versatile on offense, looking to attack the paint, and then making decisions from there.”
On his relationship with Jalen Suggs and development of Anthony Black:
“Jalen, I’ve known since he was a little kid. He played in the AAU program that I coached way, way back when. So we were about 10 minutes from each other. Obviously, I’m a little bit more advanced in age than him. His screen navigation is something that’s really important, and his point of attack defense is something that I think we can really leverage. I think he’s a guy that when he knows where to be and what to do, he’s got great instincts.
“Anthony’s somebody who’s shown elite-level transition attack offensively. He’s shown the ability to improve as you see his statistics have gotten better each year. And then defensively, he’s one of those guys you talked about on the ball, off the ball. He can be in different spots, and he can add the rebounding component defensively and offensively, frankly, for our team.”
