As the Dallas Mavericks begin their league-wide search for a new head coach, they might as well mark off a Mavericks fan favorite, but more importantly, Cooper Flagg's favorite.
Jon Scheyer has finished his fourth season at Duke, and one of those was a trip to the Final Four with the young phenom of the Mavericks. Per Brett Siegel, the Mavericks are planning on reaching out to Scheyer. Flagg would love to have his old college coach back in the NBA in arguably the hottest job in the NBA, but the chances of that are slim.
For Scheyer, it would be the perfect time to leave Duke to coach in the NBA, but it's not as simple as it seems. Scheyer took the Duke job, thinking he would be the next Mike Krzyzewski and stay for 40+ years. He's got a ways to go before even breathing on that surface, but the Mavs also may dodge a bullet without a Scheyer-led team anyway.
Mavericks probably won't land Jon Scheyer, Cooper Flagg's old coach
Flagg was already getting attention from LeBron James as a high school kid, and the Duke spotlight only elevated him further. Scheyer is in a great place now with Duke, getting five-star players every season. As the head coach of a blue-blood team for life, Scheyer already has it all set up for him.
Also, Scheyer hasn't been a coach anywhere else other than Duke. After a short professional career overseas, Scheyer returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach, associate head coach, and eventually Krzyzewski's successor.
It's all Scheyer has ever known, and he's never made the jump to coach pro ball or anywhere else, for that matter. Scheyer is one of those coaches who bleeds blue and white, and it'd be hard to see him coach anywhere else all of a sudden.
When you go to coach at schools like Duke, Michigan State, Purdue, Kentucky, Kansas, or North Carolina, fans are under the impression you're going to be there for a while. Scheyer is only getting his Duke career started, and it would be silly for him to take off and leave just for one guy.
Of course, Flagg isn't just any guy. He's getting ready to blast off in his second year, and fans are expecting one of the biggest sophomore leaps in recent history, assuming he stays healthy.
Masai Ujiri is probably looking for someone more seasoned and who's been around the game for a while. San Antonio Spurs associate head coach Sean Sweeney will be hot off the presses this offseason, and as a former Mavs assistant coach, he already has one foot in the door.
Another name to look at is Tiago Splitter, as the Portland Trail Blazers figure out their coaching situation amid a change in ownership. The Mavericks have the perfect excuse to go after him, as Splitter quietly led a mediocre Blazers team to the No. 7 seed.
As badly as fans want to see Flagg and Scheyer reunite in Dallas, they probably need to focus their attention elsewhere.
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