The Clippers plan to shift assistant coach Lawrence Frank from the bench to a high-ranking post in the front office, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (on Twitter). The move would be part of a shuffle that would have Frank assist head coach and president of basketball operations Doc Rivers in personnel and move Brendan O’Connor to the bench, Stein tweets.
It is unclear what specific role or job function Frank would have. O’Connor would seemingly fill Frank’s void, Stein notes in a full story. He joined the Clippers as an assistant in September 2014 after reaching a buyout arrangement with Brooklyn, where he was previously an assistant. The Nets reassigned Frank in December 2013 into a role in which he filed daily reports for the club, in spite of a contract that had called for him to make more than $1MM a year for six seasons as an assistant coach under Jason Kidd.
Rivers and Frank have a previous relationship, too. Frank served as an assistant under Rivers for the 2010/11 season on the Celtics bench and Rivers had reportedly sought Frank as an assistant coach in the summer of 2013, too. Frank’s greatest success in coaching came in his first stint with the Nets, when he guided the team to the playoffs four straight years as head coach. He also served as a head for the Pistons, and is 279-335 in parts of nine seasons as an NBA head man.