According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, the Boston Celtics are naming Phil Pressey as the new head coach of their G League affiliate, the Maine Celtics. Pressey has spent two seasons with the Boston club as a player development coach. He played for the Celtics for two seasons from 2013 to 2015.
Pressey will take over the position from Tyler Lashbrook, who coached Maine to an Eastern Conference finals appearance last year, but they eventually lost to the Osceola Magic. It was the Celtics' second straight season in the conference finals, as Blaine Mueller brought them to their first G League Finals appearance just one year prior.
Mueller followed Charles Lee to the Charlotte Hornets when he took the head coaching position there last summer.
What is Phil Pressey inheriting in Maine?
The Maine roster could look a lot different next season than it has for the past three years. Most notably, JD Davison, who transformed into perhaps the most beloved Maine Celtic ever in his first three seasons with the team, will likely no longer play for the club.
He was on a two-way contract for the first three years of his career and is therefore no longer eligible to sign one. That means he will likely either spend next year with Boston or another team (in the NBA or elsewhere).
Davison was named the MVP of the G League last season, the same year he set the franchise’s all-time scoring record.
Drew Peterson and Miles Norris seem likely to stick around. Both two-way players played well for Maine en route to their conference finals birth, meaning Pressey could have a little bit of continuity.
As for the rest of the roster, there’s a chance that some players stay put, but it’s always hard to gauge what a G League roster will look like year over year.
Phil Pressey’s coaching journey
Last year, I spoke with Jared Sullinger, Pressey’s former Celtics teammate, and others in his life about the new Maine leader’s journey to coaching.
“You knew Phil, in his later days, whenever the ball stopped bouncing for him, you knew he was going to be a teacher of the game,” Sullinger said. “Just because, at an early age, he did that with us in our camps. Telling us where to go, what he sees, how to be a better scorer, how he sees the game. Phil has always been that type of person.”
Everyone around him knew coaching was in the cards for Pressey, and now, he’ll get his first chance to be a head coach with Maine.