Celtics in danger of losing assistant coach to East rival
The Boston Celtics can win the NBA championship with a victory in Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday night, but it turns out that could also be their final game with assistant coach Sam Cassell.
Veteran NBA writer Marc Stein reported on Substack Thursday that the Milwaukee Bucks are expected to make a “significant” offer to Cassell this offseason. The offer would reportedly be for Cassell to become Milwaukee’s lead assistant coach.
Cassell, 54, is in his first season as an assistant for Boston. But he has already accumulated a decade-and-a-half of total NBA assistant coaching experience and has a lot of history with Milwaukee head coach Doc Rivers, his former head coach on the 2008 Celtics. Cassell has served as an assistant under Rivers on both the LA Clippers and the Philadelphia 76ers (spanning nine total seasons). He also played for the Bucks himself from 1999-2003.
Milwaukee did already hire a very notable name to reportedly serve as Rivers’ lead assistant, so it is unclear if that would change should Cassell come aboard. But what is clear is that the Celtics are being raided for their staffing talent.
Lead Boston assistant Charles Lee will become the new head coach of the Charlotte Hornets after the season, and consultant Jeff Van Gundy is being seriously pursued by a Western Conference team. Now it sounds like Cassell could be the next one to accept an NBA job elsewhere.
