The Boston Celtics coaching search rolls on, with Brad Stevens having already interviewed assistants Jay Larranaga, Jerome Allen, Scott Morrison, and Joe Mazzullah. According to ESPN, the Celtics have also received permission to speak to a number of assistant coaches from around the league, including Darvin Ham and Charles Lee of Milwaukee, Jamahl Mosley of Dallas, Jason Kidd of the Los Angeles Lakers, and Ime Udoka of Brooklyn.
There will be others as well, but for now Boston is casting a wide net. That means decisions likely won't be made for at least a little while. Obviously a few of these outside candidates are still coaching in the playoffs, so they'll be busy at work trying to advance. That will probably slow the process down some. But here's an early look at some of the candidates that seem less likely.
Boston's assistants
Allen already reportedly has an offer to take a similar assistant role with the Detroit Pistons, which seems to hint he's already looking for a backup plan. Larranaga was the early betting favorite to take the job, and he has been a finalist for jobs in the past, but it's hard to imagine the Celtics going with an assistant who spans two different head coaches in Boston. The running theme so far has been about fresh perspectives, which was the early, strong signal that the team might be looking for an outside hire.
Mazzullah being interviewed is interesting since he's relatively new and he's young. Unless he wowed Stevens in the interview, he might be a candidate to stick around on the next coach's staff.
Juwan Howard
He’s probably the biggest of the college names being thrown around for one of the four current open head coaching jobs in the NBA (Portland, Indiana and Orlando are the others). However, it doesn’t seem he’s particularly interested in leaving.
Sources: Michigan’s Juwan Howard continues to tell NBA teams he's not interested in even a discussion on leaving Ann Arbor. Teams are also calling to gather intel on Memphis coach Penny Hardaway's work. He's going to get offers to interview for openings in this NBA job cycle.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 10, 2021
He coaches his son at Michigan right now, so he’s probably going to stick around there for a little while.
Chauncey Billups
On the new Woj Pod, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski says Billups is “among the very serious candidates in Portland. Boston, same there.”
TMZ Sports tracked down Richard Hamilton, Billups’ former Detroit Pistons teammate, and asked him about the Portland opening.
It’s a bit cryptic, and it sounds like Billups would be open to any head coaching job at the moment. He is slated to interview for the Celtics job, however, the Blazers seem to be in the lead. John Hollinger reported Billups is likely their choice.
Frankly, Boston and Portland are the two best available jobs because Damian Lillard is under contract for four more years while Jayson Tatum is entering the first year of a five-year (but really it’s four years because of the player option) extension while Jaylen Brown has three years left on his deal. Any coach would probably love to jump into one of those situations. Portland might just move quickly to appease their star.
Kara Lawson
There was always going to be a question about whether she was interested in leaving Duke. She took over the program last season after one season as a Celtics assistant. They only played four games before opting out of the remainder of the season due to COVID-19.
There hasn’t been any indication that Lawson is interested in the job. Her name hasn’t been mentioned among the possibilities so far and she is pretty active on Twitter pumping up the Duke program, including hashtags #KaraEra.
🗣 Difference maker 💪⛓🛠😤#KaraEra #BestOfBothWorlds pic.twitter.com/2C8FsNnpej
— Duke Women’s Basketball (@DukeWBB) June 10, 2021
Could she just be playing along just in case she doesn’t get the job? Sure. It would be a bad look to noticeably pull back from her public obligations as head coach, interview for the job, and then go back to the team if she doesn’t get it.
Outwardly, it seems like she’s happy to be where she is. Privately, I’m pretty sure Brad Stevens has her phone number and knows how to do a Zoom call from his home office without the world knowing about it.
Of course, things can turn quickly. Right now these candidates seem less likely for Boston but we never now what back-channeling is going on or which person is going to simply botch an interview.
