The price of having one of the best coaches in college basketball is that there will be consistent offseason speculation connecting them to NBA jobs. It just is what it is.
Duke fans are no strangers to it. Those rumors were pretty frequent during Mike Krzyzewski's tenure in Durham. His flirtation with the Lakers in 2004 was well-documented, and he very nearly left the Blue Devils for that opportunity, by his own admission.
Jon Scheyer hasn't yet won a national title as Duke's head coach, but it truly seems like only a matter of time before it happens. He has frequently put together elite teams that grade out historically on KenPom. They will break through and win one at some point, perhaps as early as next season.
But even without doing so, the consensus on Scheyer is that he's one of the top basketball minds in the sport. It shouldn't come as any real surprise that he would be grabbing the attention of the NBA.
It has been reported that the Dallas Mavericks have had exploratory conversations about Scheyer as a candidate to replace Jason Kidd. That doesn't mean Scheyer is interested at all, just that the Mavericks view him as a potential candidate they would be interested in speaking with.
The Field of 68's Jeff Goodman spoke about the Scheyer-to-Dallas rumors, sharing why he doesn't believe the Duke coach would be interested in the NBA right now, with one obvious and significant caveat.
Cooper Flagg's budding superstardom cannot be ignored in Jon Scheyer-Mavericks rumors
“Scheyer, to me, I just don’t see it. I don’t see it at this point," Goodman said. "There’s also a different grind in the NBA, and when you have a young family like Scheyer has, he’s set up right now at Duke. He’s got this thing kind of figured out; he played at Duke, young kids, I just don’t see him going to the NBA lifestyle. But, again, that Dallas situation, a little bit better than most because you’ve got maybe a Top 10 player in the NBA over the next few years in Cooper Flagg, a guy that you know well.”
The potential to coach Flagg again is certainly appealing for Scheyer. It's what makes the Mavericks' job arguably the most desired position in the NBA during this cycle, save for the fact that you'll have to go head-to-head with the Thunder and Spurs. Flagg is a budding NBA superstar. He has league MVP potential. He's the type of player who only comes around so often; one who can absolutely be the best player on a title-winning team.
But Goodman makes a good point about how different the NBA lifestyle is. Scheyer has three kids who are eight years old and younger. The NBA puts you on the road for a significant amount of time. The 82-game season drags from October through at least April, all the way into June if you're fortunate enough to make the NBA Finals. And that's not counting training camp or preseason. It's also not counting the NBA Draft cycle and Summer League. It's effectively a year-round endeavor with very little time off.
That's not an easy thing for a guy with a young family like Scheyer has. That, along with being on the precipice of winning a national championship at his alma mater, should be enough for Scheyer to resist the call of the NBA.
Add us as a preferred source on Google