Things are in flux in Golden State as the franchise is stuck between trying to salvage the end of the Steph Curry era and trying to bridge the gap into the future. The Warriors are in a tough spot with an aging core and an injured Jimmy Butler. They signed head coach Steve Kerr to a new deal to remain with the team, but the same can’t be said for the assistants.
On Thursday, they announced that lead assistants Jerry Stackhouse and Terry Stotts won’t be returning next season. Both are said to be seeking head coaching opportunities, but there are only so many jobs available.
Both Stack and Stotts have great experience, but there’s certainly a chance that one or both fail to land a head gig in the NBA. Stackhouse has coached in college before, and could be open to that kind of opportunity. But if the veteran Stotts doesn’t land a job, he could quickly look for a new assistant gig to stay in the league, and he could find a perfect home in Boston.
The Celtics have a strong coaching staff, but it has been depleted in recent years, and Joe Mazzulla has shown some warts in the playoffs. Adding a veteran leader to the bench would be ideal.
Stotts would be great option to bolster Celtics bench
In the last five years alone, the Celtics’ coaching staff has lost Brad Stevens, Ime Udoka, Will Hardy, Charles Lee, Damon Stoudamire, plus Jeff Van Gundy as an advisor, and others. Joe is likely about to win Coach of the Year, and he has a great staff, but bringing in an outside voice with a unique perspective could be a huge boon.
Stotts has been coaching in the NBA since 1992, both as an assistant and a head coach, and has seen just about everything the league has to offer. He won a championship with the Mavericks as an assistant in 2011 and reached the conference finals with the Blazers as a head coach in 2019.
Joe’s staff is young, and adding a new voice to the room in the 68-year-old Stotts could make all the difference in making subtle tweaks and adjustments, especially in the playoffs, where Mazzulla and the Celtics have struggled and underperformed outside of the 2024 title run.
Stotts is just one name to consider who’s currently in the news and now unemployed, but there are tons of veteran coaches out there who could easily slot in and help the Celtics diversify their schemes, style, and general coaching going forward.
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