The Celtics fortified their coaching staff this offseason, flanking Joe Mazzulla with two of the NBA's top assistants, Sam Cassell and Charles Lee, both long-deserving of head-coaching opportunities.
The latter nearly became head coach of the Pistons before Detroit made one final, successful push for Monty Williams, offering him a six-year, $78.5 million deal, making him, at the time, the league's highest-paid head coach before Greg Popovich recently signed a five-year extension with the Spurs worth north of $80 million.
Boston's also bringing in Phil Pressey, who spent two years as a floor general for the Celtics under then-head coach Brad Stevens. Amile Jefferson, a close friend and former collegiate teammate of Jayson Tatum's, was also added to the staff.
In an interview with Heavy's Steve Bulpett at Summer League, Cassell said Mazzulla reached out to him, getting in contact with the three-time champion who was on Boston's 2008 title team through mutual friends.
And with the two in Las Vegas, they recently went to spend time with the UFC's Eric Nicksick, who won MMA Coach of the Year in 2020 and 2022.
Nicksick has trained some of the UFC's top fighters, including Francis Ngannou and current UFC Bantamweight Champion Aljamain Sterling.
There were multiple occasions throughout Mazzulla's first season as an NBA head coach where he referenced the value of learning from coaches in other sports. So, along with this being a fun experience and relationship-building activity for him and Cassell, perhaps the two also took perspective or insight from their conversations with Nicksick that they can apply to the Celtics.
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