The days of the Celtics having the most highly paid coach in the NBA are over, at least for a while.
The Celtics never really wanted to rid themselves of Doc Rivers‘ $7 million salary, preferring to keep one of the league’s best coaches whatever the cost. Now that Rivers is gone, though, the Celtics plan to look at several younger, low-profile candidates as his replacement, Yahoo! Sports reports.
“[T]he Celtics are moving into a rebuilding phase,” Adrian Wojnarowski writes. “They expect to have a young roster and no longer want to pay an elite coach’s salary.”
That would take a big name like Lionel Hollins out of the running, and could open the door for a D-League or college head coach, or an NBA assistant with no prior head coaching experience, to fill the vacancy.
Assistant coach Jay Larranaga, the only member of Rivers’ staff who has a contract for next season, will receive consideration for the head coaching job, according to multiple reports. Larranaga will have an extended interview, in a sense, when he coaches the Celtics’ summer league entrant in Orlando.
