Mike Malone is walking into North Carolina doing something that’s much different than what he did in the past. This isn’t the NBA, and the adjustment could make or break what he eventually becomes.
Not to say that he can’t be a great coach at UNC, but this was somewhat of a shocking hire, and one that needs to go as well as possible for the Tar Heels to be what they’re looking to be in the future.
A lot of the talk has been centered around what he needs to do to succeed, and Myron Medcalf of ESPN had great thoughts about that.
“In the NBA, every team has a salary cap and limitations that are intended to balance each roster. There is also a clear hierarchy of power between each team's ownership, front office and head coach. All of that is murkier at the college level. Though college basketball aficionados love to call the current transfer portal market "free agency," in truth this version of roster construction and management lacks the same structure NBA coaches enjoy. It creates a more complicated task, as the market for talent is more fluid. Malone's goal here should be to establish an identity for his program -- quickly.
“With the Nuggets, Malone had a three-time NBA MVP in Nikola Jokic to build a championship roster around. The Tar Heels don't have the same level of brand power they once had to attract the best players, and it's also unclear whether they'll have the budget. Those are the constraints Malone could face when he takes this job,” he wrote.
Having arguably the best player in the world in Nikola Jokic, Malone will need to win a lot differently than he did in the NBA.
The question for Malone is whether he can deal with the portal and recruiting as well as possible. While UNC will have others in place to do a lot of that, there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done.
There’s no guarantee that anything will go poorly or well, but it’ll be interesting to watch, to say the least.