How Michael Malone Addresses UNC's NBA Issue - Today's Take

Inside Carolina senior reporter on the potential NBA perception payoff for North Carolina as Michael Malone brings his professional resume to Chapel Hill.

“North Carolina’s recent perception issues regarding the NBA are going to be put on the back burner for two reasons. Number one, when you’re bringing in Michael Malone — who’s coached in the NBA for years, won a NBA championship — that’s a resume and cache that Carolina has not had. Now, Carolina had a Hall of Famer in Roy Williams, one of the best who ever coached the game at the college level, but he had never made that switch to the NBA level. He was more concerned with winning games in college than he was about getting guys to the NBA. And that make sense because that was his job. That carried on with Hubert Davis.

“With Malone having that NBA pedigree, some of that goes away initially, because the expectation is he knows what the NBA wants now, and he’ll be able to coach guys up. The other part of that is Chuck Martin. Martin can sit down with any prospect and cite his time with John Calipari and point to all those NBA successes. 

“Those two components address those issues. Now, if we get a couple years in and we’re still seeing that trend then we can circle back. But while the slate isn’t wiped completely clean, much of that pressure has been alleviated with the Malone hire. 

“We will have to see if it carries through but there’s a lot of potential on this roster. You have to meet that potential and get guys to pop. Then the Carolina basketball-NBA talk and lack of pros goes away and word gets out. You’ll have a lot of talented players knowing if they go to UNC, their professional prospects can improve. That’s where the benefit is, and that’s where the opportunity exists for Michael Malone to put his stamp on the college level.”