Charles Lee is finalizing an agreement to join the Celtics as their lead assistant coach, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Lee, 38, was one of the hottest names on the coaching market this spring. He was reportedly a finalist for the coaching vacancies in Detroit and Toronto and received consideration from the Bucks and Suns as well. He served as associate head coach under Mike Budenholzer in Milwaukee and worked with Budenholzer in Atlanta as well.
Lee is the latest high-profile addition for the Celtics, who were determined to rebuild Joe Mazzulla‘s coaching staff after a loss in the Eastern Conference Finals. The team also plans to add former Sixers assistant Sam Cassell, according to a report last week.
Mazzulla didn’t get the chance to build his own team of assistants after Ime Udoka was suspended shortly before the start of the regular season. Damon Stoudamire left Boston in March to become the new head coach at Georgia Tech, and assistants Ben Sullivan, Mike Moser, Garrett Jackson and possibly Aaron Miles are reportedly headed to Houston to join Udoka.
Didn’t they hire Sam Cassell to be lead assistant? How many lead assistants can there be? Which lead assistant is going to lead the other lead assistant?
They did not.
He was lead assistant in Philly, but there are no reports that he was hired to take on that role in Boston
I would think Cassell would be Associate Head Coach and Lee Lead Assistant. Don’t know how the organization arranged it.
Great Move!! Boston has coaching again! I hope they trade Brown and we win a title.
So why didn’t Celtics hire better assistants last year? I get mazzulla took over late but there’s also no deadline on coaching changes. Seems like a weak excuse for a problem anyone could have stepped in to solve. There were lots of veteran coaches not working at all.
Was there really much available at that time? It was only like a week before preseason began, any coach worth anything was already hired by that point
Welcome aboard Charles Lee!