Sam Cassell is reportedly headed back to Boston.
The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported Sunday night that Cassell has agreed to become a Celtics assistant and leave the Sixers. Fifteen years ago, Cassell concluded his 15-year NBA playing career by winning his third championship as part of the 2007-08 Celtics.
During three years as a Sixers assistant, Cassell worked closely with Tyrese Maxey and James Harden. In October, Harden described Cassell as a “mentor” and noted he’d helped in his efforts to become a “less predictable player,” which included refining his mid-range game and accepting those shots when they were the best ones available.
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While Cassell often brought banter, smiles and energy, he also didn’t mind offering blunt criticisms and pushing players. Cassell took ample pride in Maxey’s outstanding development. After playing irregular minutes as a rookie and making just 30.1 percent of his three-point attempts, Maxey averaged an efficient 20.3 points in his third season while shooting 43.4 percent from long range on increased volume.
“He’s a tough kid, tough-minded kid,” Cassell told NBC Sports Philadelphia in a phone interview last summer immediately before running Maxey through a workout in Los Angeles. “I can coach him hard, I can get on him. And he knows I can get on him. … (I’m always telling him), ‘This ain’t for me, this is strictly for you. This is strictly for you. My history playing the game of basketball has been written; it ain’t going to get better. It is what it is. But yours hasn’t started yet.’ By Year 15, I want this kid to be a great player. Not a good player, a great player.”
Doc Rivers said in May that Cassell was his only assistant involved in both the Sixers' offensive and defensive coaching meetings. He called Cassell a “brilliant basketball mind” and said he deserved a head coaching position.
Clearly, Cassell is a major addition to 34-year-old Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla’s staff. That’s especially true given the Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn reported this week that Celtics assistants Ben Sullivan, Aaron Miles and Mike Moser are expected to join the staff of new Rockets head coach Ime Udoka.
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For the past nine seasons, Cassell had served as assistant to Rivers, whom the Sixers fired following their second-round playoff loss to the Celtics. The team introduced Nick Nurse as its new head coach Thursday.
Nurse has not yet assembled his coaching staff in Philadelphia. Adrian Griffin, his lead assistant with the Raptors, accepted the Bucks’ head coaching job. Toronto is the NBA’s one team currently searching for a head coach.