Mavs 'Chasing A Championship!' New Coach Details Lofty NBA Goals

A predicted win total for this season? New Dallas Mavs coach Dusty May isn't going there.

A predicted timetable as to when the Mavs rebound from last season's 26-win finish to again be truly competitive? May isn't going there, either.

But the ultimate goal?

May, who coached Michigan to the 2026 national championship and a 37-3 record before Dallas hired him in June, does know something about that ... and is willing to speak on it.

"I know,'' he promised, "that we’re going to work like crazy to chase a championship and hang a banner in our building.”

May believes he can communicate to his team "the keys to winning.'' He didn't share those completely or specifically with the media, but he has done so with his players.

“The non-negotiables ... we have a couple things that we live by, and they’ve been well-received up to this point,'' he said.

The coach continued ...

“The keys to winning are the same at every level. High school, college, NBA. It’s getting a group to play, to punch above their weight, to play better than they actually are as individuals together as a group, to be able to go through the marathon of a season....

"But as far as one game or seven-game series, you get better shots, you win in the margins, and you do it with great people.”

Ah, those "seven-game series'' ... playoff talk!

But May is careful to avoid any lofty predictions of that just yet.

“I think we have a good basketball team,'' he said. "We’re going to be every day building in the short-term and long term. ... And so I think all those questions will be answered in real time after we’ve seen us compete against the other teams, the best teams in the league, the middle-back teams, whatever the case.

“But I think we have a team that’s going to compete.''

Is that enough for now for a fan base that will on the one hand surely enjoy watching the Cooper Flagg/Kyrie Irving combo ... while on the other hand is still simmering over the bone-headed trade-away of Luka Doncic?

Wins - not promises - would help speed that process.

"As far as a win total, anything like that, I have no idea. I don’t know the league well enough,'' May said frankly. "I know that we’re going to work like crazy to chase a championship and hang a banner in our building.”

Dallas plays the Houston Rockets at The Venetian Arena in Macao on Oct. 9 and Oct. 11. The regular season opens Oct. 21 at Houston, with tip-off at 7:30 p.m. CT.