Celtics Announce Ime Udoka's Full Coaching Staff
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Celtics will report to training camp in a week, and the 2021-22 season is now less than a month away. With those two dates quickly approaching, Boston announced Ime Udoka's full coaching staff on Tuesday.
Udoka will carry a six-man coaching staff in Boston, along with five others who will help guide him through his first season as an NBA head coach:
Assistant Coaches
Will Hardy
Damon Stoudamire
Ben Sullivan
Joe Mazzulla
Aaron Miles
Tony Dobbins
Player Enhancement Staff
Evan Bradds
Garrett Jackson
DJ MacLeay
Steve Tchiengang
Matt Reynolds will also serve as a special assistant to Udoka, the Celtics announced Tuesday.
Mazzulla and Dobbins are both holdovers in Boston, with Mazzulla returning for his third year on the Celtics bench after serving as head coach of the C's Summer League team. This will be Dobbins' second year as an assistant after spending the previous two years as the team's video coordinator.
The four newcomers to the Boston coaching staff all have ties with Udoka, either on an NBA bench of from his hometown of Portland, Oregon. Hardy and Udoka were together in San Antonio on Gregg Popovich's staff, and were also both on the bench for Team USA in the 2019 FIBA World Cup and 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Stoudamire, Sullivan and Miles all have connections to Portland, and bring varying different levels of NBA success to Udoka's staff. Stoudamire is a former NBA Rookie of the Year and won West Coast Conference Coach of the Year honors in 2019-20 while he was on the Pacific bench. Sullivan brings some NBA championship clout, as he's fresh off winning a title with the Milwaukee Bucks. Miles spent his last two years as a player development coach with the Golden State Warriors, after serving as head coach of the franchise's G League affiliate for two season.
NBA teams will begin training camp on Sept. 28, and the Celtics are set to tip off their 2021-22 season against the New York Knicks on Oct. 20.