Dusty May names Cooper Flagg as top reason for joining Mavericks

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A shift in culture is to be expected when a successful college coach joins an NBA squad. They tend to carry a winning culture built on blood, sweat, and tears. This is exactly what Dusty May will bring to the Dallas Mavericks. Before all of the X's and O's and roster construction talks start, fans always have to ask: why did he choose to leave his winning culture in the Midwest for the team in Texas? It all had to with Cooper Flagg.

May names Flagg as top reason to leave Michigan and join Mavericks

Dusty May had it all with the Michigan Wolverines. The administration loved him and the culture he built made a lot of players buy-in to his schematics. To top it all off, he just came off a national championship run after leading great talents like Yaxel Lendeborg, Aday Mara, Elliot Cadeau, Morez Johnson. He also had a contract extension that would have lasted up until 2030.

So, what did the Mavericks have that the Wolverines didn't? The simple answer revolves around Cooper Flagg, via Christian Clark of The Athletic.

"A superstar who plays hard, who cares about his teammates, who is incredibly unselfish — those things aren’t that common, according to others. When you’re coaching at FAU, and guys like Cooper are playing in one gym, you go to another gym and find some other guys," the new Mavericks head coach declared.

Notably, Coach May has heard of Flagg before. In fact, he wanted to recruit the young gun even during his coaching stint with the FAU Owls. Obviously, Flagg chose to play for Coach Jon Scheyer and the Duke Blue Devils prior to getting drafted to the NBA,

Now, Coach May has the opportunity to fulfill the missed opportunity he had in his college basketball coaching stint. Flagg will now have to rely on his development program to turn into a full-blown star in the NBA. The Mavericks already saw him beat Kon Knueppel, his former Duke teammate, for the Rookie of the Year crown in the past season. His foundations for stardom are already there, all Coach May has to ensure that his upward trajectory remains stable.