Who will coach the Celtics in 2021-22?

[31to6]

I cannot read this slander about KC Jones.

Bill Russell averaged 15ppg so that reads as 'average/below-average starter' to me.

[daveisceltics]

Anyone mentioned but Mike D'antoni.

[Curmudgeon]

I only like one of the retreads: Nate McMillan. Otherwise Stevens needs to think out of the box, like the Nets did last year.

[Hal14]

Anyone mentioned but Mike D'antoni.

Only Billups, Cassell or Lawson...maybe Van Gundy..

[aporel18]

1. Becky Hammon
2. Sam Cassell
3. Larry Bird (jk, he ain't walking through that door)


4. Anyone not named McMillan, Van Gundy or D'Antoni.

In any case, I'd love to see them hire Rondo as an assistant, and eventually, become HC and play the yang to Brad Stevens' ying (I wish Brad a long career at the Celtics)

[denmuscles]

What’s Dana Barros doing these days ?

[moonie_mcgee]

I was referring to those 3 as good role players and saying it’s usually the good former NBA role players that end up being really good coaches with Bird being that exception.

I like Billups too. That’s why I’m hoping if he is our next coach, he will be an exception because he was way more than a role player.

KC was a such a good role player he was inducted in the Hall of Fame. How about Wilkens, Nelson, Silas, Westphal...

KC was a 7 points per game scorer in the NBA. That’s a good role player.

He was a class act and a born winner with 11 titles.

Yes he was a gentleman and polite. Not a smart @ss.
He was also a defensive specialist who sacrificed offensive statistics, as with Russell, for the betterment of the team and Championships - 11 in fact.

[Hal14]

What’s Dana Barros doing these days ?

I coached a youth summer camp with him a few years ago. We don't want him as a coach, even as an assistant.

[Hal14]

1. Becky Hammon
2. Sam Cassell
3. Larry Bird (jk, he ain't walking through that door)


4. Anyone not named McMillan, Van Gundy or D'Antoni.

In any case, I'd love to see them hire Rondo as an assistant, and eventually, become HC and play the yang to Brad Stevens' ying (I wish Brad a long career at the Celtics)

1) What do you have against Van Gundy? I think he could be a decent choice.

2) I'm pretty sure Hammon is just gonna take over in san antonio once popovich retires (likely to be either next season or the season after)

3) That would be pretty cool if Bird took the job (imagine the ovation he would get when he first gets introduced when they announce the starting lineups at the first home game next season if he took the job ?!), but yeah, definitely seems like a long shot..

[moonie_mcgee]

I’m reading some of the last few pages and scratching my head.

What does a good former NBA have to do with being a good NBA coach? It’s usually the opposite. It’s usually the role players or decent players that became really good coaches, with Bird being the exception.

K.C., Riley, Phil Jackson. A lot of NBA coaches that were successful never played in the NBA.

It’s usually the NBA stars that cant relate to most of their players. Just because Billups was the player player of the bunch other than Kidd, doesn’t mean he will be a good coach. I hope if we hire him, he will be the exception like Bird was.

Agreed that stars often don’t get into coaching or do well at it. Chauncey was a grinder though, a high pick who looked like a busy early and worked his way to finals MVP. I don’t know, I just like him. We’ll see how it plays out.

The way you wrote it has me puzzled — you are aware that KC, Riley and Phil were NBA players, yes?

These guys are most of the best coaches of the last 50 years:

KC - hall of fame nba player
Lenny Wilkins - hall of fame NBA player
Jerry Sloan - 2x all-star as NBA player
Don Nelson - excellent role player as NBA player
Rick Adelman - good role player as NBA player
Larry Brown - bench warmer player in the pros for 5 years
Tommy Heinsohn - hall of fame NBA player
Bill Russell - hall of fame NBA player
Larry Bird - hall of fame NBA Player
Phil Jackson - excellent role player as NBA player
Pat Riley - bench warmer for 9 years in NBA
Rudy Tomjanovich - role player in NBA
Doc Rivers - 1x NBA all-star as NBA player
Rick Carlisle - bench warmer NBA player
Jack Ramsay - did not play at a high level
Hubie Brown - did not play at a high level
Erik Spoelstra - played college ball but not pro
Gregg Popovich - did not play at a high level
Jeff Van Gundy - did not play at a high level
Billy Cunningham - hall of fame as NBA player
Chuck Daly - did not play at a high level
Steve Kerr - excellent role player as NBA player

Out of 22 coaches, we've got:

Hall of fame NBA player = 5
NBA all-star = 2
NBA role player = 5
NBA bench warmer = 3
did not play pro basketball = 6

Great list Hal! I hope Stevens isn't procrastinating. He seems the type. Are there any great coaches that are willing and able to get back in the fire. Someone mentioned Bird Get Bird in here, add another scorer star and man up the front court - Championship!

[radcot]

Informative list, but Rudy T. was a 5 time all-star.

[Shak_Celts]

I was about to say Coach Carter but they didn't win it all and we coulda kept CBS for that!

[Curmudgeon]

Larry Brown was not a "bench warmer player in the pros for five years." He was a three-time ABA all star, led the league in assists for three straight years and was the most valuable player in the 1968 ABA finals. Then he hurt his knee, and was a good player thereafter, but not an all star.

I think Butch van Breda Kolff belongs on the list, as does Bill Fitch, who won a title with the Celtics in 1981 and who is in the hall of fame. Also John Kundla, who won multiple titles with the Minneapolis Lakers, Doug Moe, Tex Winter, Alex Hannum, Dick Motta, Red Holzman (two NBA championships with the Knicks), and the most glaring omission from your list, Arnold "Red" Auerbach. Of those coaches, only Hannum played in the NBA and Doug Moe in the ABA.

[Hal14]

Larry Brown was not a "bench warmer player in the pros for five years." He was a three-time ABA all star, led the league in assists for three straight years and was the most valuable player in the 1968 ABA finals. Then he hurt his knee, and was a good player thereafter, but not an all star.

I think Butch van Breda Kolff belongs on the list, as does Bill Fitch, who won a title with the Celtics in 1981 and who is in the hall of fame. Also John Kundla, who won multiple titles with the Minneapolis Lakers, Doug Moe, Tex Winter, Alex Hannum, Dick Motta, Red Holzman (two NBA championships with the Knicks), and the most glaring omission from your list, Arnold "Red" Auerbach. Of those coaches, only Hannum played in the NBA and Doug Moe in the ABA.

my post said "the majority (not all) of the best coaches of the last 50 years). Auerbach was from prior to then, didn't go that far back because the game is so different today. should have probably only looked at like the last 10 or 20 years.

The point of my post wasn't to list out every great coach ever. it was simply to show if we can find a correlation between excellent NBA coaches of last 50 years to whether they were great NBA players or not.

And you're proving my point for me, since Brown was a great player, but Auerbach wasn't.

So again, the results are mixed. Some great coaches were great players, some weren't..

[Fierce1]

I wonder what would happen if Marcus Smart is made playing coach.

[Hal14]

Agreed that stars often don’t get into coaching or do well at it. Chauncey was a grinder though, a high pick who looked like a busy early and worked his way to finals MVP. I don’t know, I just like him. We’ll see how it plays out.

The way you wrote it has me puzzled — you are aware that KC, Riley and Phil were NBA players, yes?

These guys are most of the best coaches of the last 50 years:

KC - hall of fame nba player
Lenny Wilkins - hall of fame NBA player
Jerry Sloan - 2x all-star as NBA player
Don Nelson - excellent role player as NBA player
Rick Adelman - good role player as NBA player
Larry Brown - bench warmer player in the pros for 5 years
Tommy Heinsohn - hall of fame NBA player
Bill Russell - hall of fame NBA player
Larry Bird - hall of fame NBA Player
Phil Jackson - excellent role player as NBA player
Pat Riley - bench warmer for 9 years in NBA
Rudy Tomjanovich - role player in NBA
Doc Rivers - 1x NBA all-star as NBA player
Rick Carlisle - bench warmer NBA player
Jack Ramsay - did not play at a high level
Hubie Brown - did not play at a high level
Erik Spoelstra - played college ball but not pro
Gregg Popovich - did not play at a high level
Jeff Van Gundy - did not play at a high level
Billy Cunningham - hall of fame as NBA player
Chuck Daly - did not play at a high level
Steve Kerr - excellent role player as NBA player

Out of 22 coaches, we've got:

Hall of fame NBA player = 5
NBA all-star = 2
NBA role player = 5
NBA bench warmer = 3
did not play pro basketball = 6

Great list Hal! I hope Stevens isn't procrastinating. He seems the type. Are there any great coaches that are willing and able to get back in the fire. Someone mentioned Bird Get Bird in here, add another scorer star and man up the front court - Championship!

I've got it...

Head coach = Bird
Assistant coach = McHale
Assistant coach = Evan Turner

Now that's a staff! So much basketball knowledge right there. So much celtic pride. all 3 are former celtic players. bird and mchale obviously are close, know each other well and i could see the 2 of them being a really good coaching pairing, so much respect they have for each other. players would respect them. bird won coach of the year in indiana and coached a team with an old reggie miller, mark jackson and rik smits to the nba finals. bird's pacers team in 98 gave jordan's bulls a grueling series in ECF. i know it's a long shot since he hasn't coached since 2000 and doesn't really like the celtics organization anymore but you never know!

Turner stays on because a) he's on the staff currently so will be good for continuity with current team if 1 of the current coaches stays on b) he's young which will be good balance with old guys bird and mchale and c) tatum likes turner, and as soon as stevens vacated the coaching position tatum went on record saying he wanted turner as coach. tatum is the franchise player, need to keep him happy, turner has to stay on as assistant.

[31to6]

Well we’ve jumped the shark here, haven’t we?

[LarryBirdsFingr]

Is this gonna be forever

[aporel18]

1. Becky Hammon
2. Sam Cassell
3. Larry Bird (jk, he ain't walking through that door)


4. Anyone not named McMillan, Van Gundy or D'Antoni.

In any case, I'd love to see them hire Rondo as an assistant, and eventually, become HC and play the yang to Brad Stevens' ying (I wish Brad a long career at the Celtics)

1) What do you have against Van Gundy? I think he could be a decent choice.

2) I'm pretty sure Hammon is just gonna take over in san antonio once popovich retires (likely to be either next season or the season after)

3) That would be pretty cool if Bird took the job (imagine the ovation he would get when he first gets introduced when they announce the starting lineups at the first home game next season if he took the job ?!), but yeah, definitely seems like a long shot..

I just think Van Gundy is a better TV guy than coach, and we need a coach that grows with the team, with a fresh voice. We need veterans, but on the court. Only exception would be if Larry Bird wanted to coach the Celtics, that's the guy you want to go to war with.

Yes, Hammon is probably taking over in San Antonio, but the Celtics should try to hire her. Coming from Popovich system, there's a lot she can bring to the team, and given her playing (and living) experience as a WNBA/International star, she could for sure be an inspiring leader for our players.

We'll see.

[JediMasterRevan]

Be happy when coach gets set up cause I assume trades wont be done until coach is in place.