Boston Celtics: 3 positive predictions for what will happen this offseason

Boston Celtics positive prediction No. 3) Cs will hire the first female head coach

With Brad Stevens now taking over the duties of President of Basketball Operations for the Boston Celtics, he simultaneously dropped the clipboard on the sidelines, which means there is a vacancy at the Head Coaching position for one of the league’s most storied franchises.

Since the news broke of Stevens’ resignation from the role, rumblings have gone on to surface pertaining to who could go about and take on the gig for the 2021-22 season and beyond.

Already, we’ve seen many names linked to the franchise as prime candidates and, by all means, they have impressive credentials to back their inclusion within these conversations.

However, while many find themselves looking to coaches with experience running the show full-time, some believe that perhaps a fresh face could be quite impactful for this team, with many hoping to see a former basketball player taking the job.

We here at the Houdini are all for ex-ballers coming aboard as the next head coach, and actually believe there are a few former players that seem to make a ton of sense for the franchise. However, we’re not talking about past NBA players but, rather, former WNBA stars.

That’s right, folks, we’re going out on a limb here with our positive prediction No. 3 — this offseason, the Boston Celtics will be the first team in NBA history to hire a woman as their team’s head coach, and we think either San Antonio Spurs assistant, Becky Hammon, and current Duke Blue Devils women’s basketball head coach, Kara Lawson, should be atop the list.

For Hammon, the idea seems to be quite enticing. A basketball legend who is easily one of the greatest WNBA players of all time, the former 6x All-Star took her knowledge of the sport to the NBA level two years after her playing days came to an end, as she became just the second female coach in league history heading into the 2014 season.

Since then, she has gone on to do many “firsts” in the association, including being the first woman to serve as head coach in the NBA’s Summer League, where she would lead the Spurs to win a Summer League title, being the first woman to serve on the coaching staff for the All-Star game (2016), and, just this past season, became the first female acting head coach in NBA history when taking over for Gregg Popovich after being ejected during a December 30th bout against the Lakers.

The coaching candidates linked to the Popovich tree are always highly sought after when there’s a vacancy and some of the league’s current top HCs have strong ties to the legendary basketball mind — ex. Mike Budenholzer, Quin Snyder, Monty Williams, etc.

With this, why should someone like Hammon be viewed any differently?

Answer: she shouldn’t!

Add in the fact that, in the past, Brad Stevens has publicly praised the WNBA legend as a prime coaching candidate, saying he “would hope that that time is coming very soon” for a female head coach, and one has reason to believe she’ll be atop the list for Boston Celtics options.

In the case of Kara Lawson, the former WNBA star already has strong ties to both the C’s franchise and Stevens himself, as she served as an assistant coach in 2019-20 for Boston before nabbing the head gig with Duke the following year.

Just like Hammon, Lawson is thought of highly amongst players and coaches within the NBA and, during her time in Beantown, worked closely with some of their key core players, specifically Marcus Smart.

Though some may believe that due to her commitment with Duke, seeing her take the job with the Celtics seems a bit farfetched, recently the White Mamba himself, Brian Scalabrine, put his two-cents into the C’s coaching search situation and stated that he believes Lawson will be the next hire at the position that the front office will make:

"“I think they’re going to hire Kara Lawson,” Scalabrine said. “I know the organization thinks she’s unbelievable. I know the players respect her. When she went down to Duke to coach the women’s team there — I mean, I’m just putting A + B = C to me. I think they hire Kara Lawson…”"

Like Brad Stevens said, the hope is that the league will soon see the first-ever female head coach.

This offseason, we believe the Boston Celtics will finally make this a reality.