BOSTON — Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla spent last offseason hand-picking a staff to join the sideline crew before the top-to-bottom new-look team began embarking on its NBA-best (64-win) 2023-24 season.
It involved bringing in Amilie Jefferson, Charles Lee, and Sam Cassell, but by the middle of Boston’s postseason run, that group had started to dwindle once more. Lee has signed a contract with the Charlotte Hornets to serve as head coach. As for the Los Angeles Lakers, they are set to interview with Cassell, a 14-year experienced assistant coach, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, after they parted ways with Darvin Ham.
“He’s been on every seat on the bench in the NBA, and he knows how to communicate with every single player,” Mazzulla stated prior to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Game 5 on Wednesday night at TD Garden. “Because he has visited the location where that specific player has been.” He watches a movie as his first action before we start playing. Despite having played the game in the past, he is a guy who wants to understand and study it. dependable, excellent communicator, fantastic coach—great coach.”
Los Angeles, which finished the regular season with a 47-35 record and a No. 7 seed in the Western Conference, toyed with the idea of contending. But when the postseason rolled along, the Lakers collapsed, losing all four of their games by double digits against the Denver Nuggets in the first round.
Los Angeles’s aging dynamic pair of LeBron James and Anthony Davis isn’t enough to offset the team’s weak depth. During the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, James led the Lakers to their first NBA title in a decade by defeating the Miami Heat.
Since then, the Lakers have lost to the Nuggets in the conference finals and were eliminated in the first round twice, indicating the need for new leadership on the West Coast.
The Lakers will also interview assistant coaches Micah Nori (Minnesota Timberwolves), David Adelman (Nuggets), Chris Quinn (Heat), and James Borrego (New Orleans Pelicans).
