Ime Udoka brought some of his Boston Celtics assistants to the Houston Rockets.
The new Rockets head coach is expected to hire current Celtics assistants Ben Sullivan, Aaron Miles and Mike Mose after the Celtics were eliminated by the Miami Heat in the NBA playoffs, according to Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe.
Sullivan and Miles were both part of Udoka’s original coaching staff in Boston in 2021, while Moser was hired as a player development coach last summer. Sullivan specifically returned with Udoka, when he entered the NBA as a San Antonio Spurs video intern at the recommendation of Udoka, then a Spurs assistant.
The Rockets hired Udoka as their head coach last month to replace the fired Stephen Silas. Udoka, who led the Celtics to the NBA Finals last year in his first season with the team, saw his time in Boston come to an end after he was suspended for the entire season for violating the team’s code of conduct. The Celtics remain largely silent on the exact cause of the disciplinary action, but it has been reported that Udoka allegedly had a consensual relationship with a female staff member and allegedly made inappropriate remarks to her.
The Celtics promoted assistant Joe Mazzulla to interim head coach while Udoka sat out the season, then opted to give Mazzulla the permanent gig during a successful regular season. Mazzulla led the Celtics to the Eastern Conference finals and came close to pulling off one of the greatest comebacks in NBA history by tying the Heat after trailing 3-0, but it ended in a blowout Game 7 loss.
Now, Mazzulla has a new problem to solve.
The Celtics coaching staff is depleted
This is what the Celtics coaching staff looked like when they reached the NBA Finals under Udoka, and where they are now.
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Ime Udoka (Rockets head coach)
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Will Hardy (Utah Jazz head coach)
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Damon Stoudamire (Georgia Tech head coach)
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Ben Sullivan (Rockets assistant coach)
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Joe Mazzulla (Celtics head coach)
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Aaron Miles (Rockets assistant coach)
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Tony Dobbins (Celtics assistant coach)
Of the seven people who helped the Celtics win the Eastern Conference, only two were in Boston. The Celtics played with a short coaching staff all season after the departures of Hardy and Stoudamire, and now the team has several spots to fill under a head coach who has struggled at times in the playoffs.
