It was no secret that in recent weeks the Dallas Mavericks had cranked up the heat on their pursuit of Duke head coach Jon Scheyer. It's not the first NBA job that Scheyer has been linked to since taking over for Coach K in Durham, but it was the first one that felt like it could possibly lure him away.
There aren't many better opportunities for a young coach making the leap into the NBA than what the Mavericks can offer with budding NBA superstar Cooper Flagg. The fact that Scheyer recruited him and then coached him in college made that prospect all the more enticing.
Ultimately, Scheyer decided to pass on the Mavericks job. Michigan's Dusty May did not. Fresh off winning the national title with the Wolverines, May will take over in Dallas.
According to ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania, Scheyer could still find his way to the NBA in the coming years. In fact, Charania seems to believe it's an inevitability.
"Eventually, Jon Scheyer is gonna make a jump, from all accounts, to the NBA. He's just got that build to him, that mold to him, same as Dusty May," Charania said to Pat McAfee on Monday.
Shams Charania believes Jon Scheyer will eventually make the NBA jump
Duke fans are spoiled when it comes to coaching searches. Mike Krzyzewski was the head coach for 42 years, and by finding a successor in Scheyer, who is Duke through and through, fans were hoping that it would be another 40 years before they had to deal with another coaching search.
That's just not the reality of the coaching carousel. Coach K was different. He had plenty of opportunities to make the leap to the NBA, but always stayed in Durham. It's fair to question whether Krzyzewski would have made the NBA jump, though, if he were coaching in this era of college basketball bereft of rules or regulations.
Perhaps Scheyer will follow the Coach K path, but odds are that he'll find the NBA too enticing to ignore at some point.
Perhaps he already would have had he reached the pinnacle of the sport like May did in April.
Had Duke won the national title last year or this year, then maybe Scheyer decides now is the time to make the leap to the NBA with the Mavericks set up for long-term success with Flagg as the franchise's cornerstone.
It seems like Scheyer will want to cut down the nets and lead the Blue Devils to their first post-Coach K title before he potentially tries his hand at the NBA. That's a worthwhile trade for Duke fans.
So maybe one day Scheyer finds his way to the NBA. But that day was not today, which is the only thing that matters.
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