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The Boston Celtics are crumbling. After a controversy-filled week, they announced that their longtime president of basketball operations, Danny Ainge, was retiring from his position and that their head coach, Brad Stevens, would replace him.
That, of course, means that the Celtics are in search of a new head coach, and according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, Jason Kidd is among the names expected to be considered for the job:
Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Jason Kidd and former Atlanta Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce are expected to be head-coaching candidates for the Boston Celtics, league sources tell @YahooSports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) June 2, 2021
Kidd, who the Los Angeles Lakers hired as an assistant coach in 2019, has been linked to just about every head-coaching vacancy in the NBA for the last two years. Last year, he interviewed with the Knicks and made a “strong impression.” Then, in October, he was linked to the New Orleans Pelicans head-coaching job.
Unfortunately for Kidd, he didn’t land any of those jobs, but it appears that he’ll have at least one more opportunity to try and become a head coach — something that he’s made clear he wants to do again — through the Celtics. If he beats out the other candidates for the job, it will definitely create and interesting dynamic between the Lakers and Celtics. More than that, though, it will give the Lakers an opportunity to add someone with fresh ideas to their bench.
One of the biggest criticisms of Vogel’s reign as head coach has been his lack of an offensive system and those criticisms will only get louder if the Lakers are eliminated by the Phoenix Suns in the first round. While it’s hard to judge an assistant coach’s impact, bringing in someone with a reputation for being an elite offensive coach would inspire confidence, one would think.
It’s unclear when the Celtics will start interviewing candidates for their head-coaching job, but the Lakers granted the Knicks permission to interview Kidd during the playoffs last year, so timing likely won’t be an issue for Kidd.
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