As the Los Angeles Lakers, 17-time NBA champions, are enmeshed in quite the predicament following a 30-point loss in Game 5, the 17-time champs in the Eastern Conference are also in upheaval.
After being eliminated from the playoffs, the Boston Celtics are shuffling their front office for a new look.
Danny Ainge, former President of Basketball Operations for the Celtics, retired Wednesday in a move that came out of the blue.
Boston elevated head coach Brad Stevens to take over Ainge’s role, creating a vacancy for the head coaching position.
As the Celtics look to replace Stevens, who coached the franchise since 2013, prominent names throughout the league are surfacing as potential hires.
Among those names is Jason Kidd, currently an assistant coach with the Lakers, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports:
Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Jason Kidd and former Atlanta Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce are expected to be head-coaching candidates for the Boston Celtics, league sources tell @YahooSports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) June 2, 2021
Kidd first started his coaching career with the Brooklyn Nets in the 2013-2014 season and went 44-38, but had an unusual exit as the Nets traded him to the Milwaukee Bucks for multiple draft picks.
Kidd coached the Bucks for four seasons and made the playoffs twice before being fired in 2018. Milwaukee had high expectations that season, but through 45 games, they barely latched onto a playoff spot, and a change needed to happen.
Current Lakers head coach Frank Vogel brought Kidd onto his coaching staff the following year, where Kidd has since remained.
It’s still very early in the search process for Boston, so it’ll be interesting to see how deep the interest in Kidd goes.
[vertical-gallery id=40179]
[mm-video type=video id=01f76fqex7cz5b69389s playlist_id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01eqbvq570kgj8vfs7 image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01f76fqex7cz5b69389s/01f76fqex7cz5b69389s-4ef85d439e72dec505ef4e716e485ae1.jpg]