Boston Celtics fans were hit with a massive pumpfake on Monday morning when ESPN Insider Shams Charania tweeted out some breaking news -- just not the Giannis Antetokounmpo breaking news that the whole NBA world has been waiting for.
Instead, Charania shared that the Chicago Bulls are hiring former Portland Trail Blazers interim head coach Tiago Splitter to fill their own head coaching vacancy. Splitter took over the Blazers just a few games into the 2025-26 season and helped them reach the playoffs for the first time since the 2020-21 campaign.
Portland’s success under Splitter makes him a tough loss, especially considering that he was amongst the finalists for the open Blazers job. With him out of the picture, Celtics assistant coach Tyler Lashbrook is a serious candidate to win the spot.
Last week, NBA Insider Jake Fischer reported that Portland had narrowed its head coaching search to three candidates: Splitter, Lashbrook, and Minnesota Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori.
Boston is now staring at a 50% chance of losing a key piece of Joe Mazzulla's coaching staff to the Blazers. Lashbrook joined the Cs in 2023 after spending nearly a decade working for the Philadelphia 76ers, where he got his start in the film room.
He spent the majority of the 2024-25 season serving as the head coach of the Maine Celtics, Boston’s G-League affiliate, ironically based in Portland -- just the other one. This past season, Lashbrook could consistently be seen working with rookie guard Hugo Gonzalez during pregame workouts.
The two seemed to have a great relationship, with Lashbrook helping the young Spaniard get acclimated to the Celtics’ system.
Tyler Lashbrook isn’t the only Celtics assistant who could be on the move
We also learned that longtime assistant Tony Dobbins could be up for a promotion elsewhere, too. Marc Stein shared that Dobbins was one of five coaches that the Dallas Mavericks had shown interest in after parting ways with Jason Kidd last month.
“Sources say that the Mavericks have either already registered official interest or plan to do so with a number of prominent assistant coaches,” Stein wrote on Thursday. “Those include Minnesota's Micah Nori, Houston's Royal Ivey, Toronto's Jama Mahlalela, Boston's Tony Dobbins and Miami consultant Noah LaRoche.”
Dobbins has become a beloved figure within the Celtics’ locker room over the course of his near-decade with the organization.
If Boston loses either Dobbins, Lashbrook, or both this summer it’ll be a bittersweet moment. Seeing them go would be tough, but to see them get the rare opportunity that is running an NBA team would be great.
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