Sam Cassell to Interview for Jazz Coaching Job, per Report

He’s spent the past two seasons as an assistant with the 76ers.

The Jazz continue to add names to their list of coaching candidates, with the latest being 76ers assistant Sam Cassell.

According to Shams Charania of Stadium and The Athletic, Cassell will interview for the vacant head coach job in Utah, setting him up for a possible reunion with Jazz CEO Danny Ainge.

The Utah Jazz are interviewing Philadelphia 76ers assistant Sam Cassell for their open head coaching job, sources tell me and @Tjonesonthenba. Cassell was part of the 2008 champion Celtics, constructed by now-Jazz CEO Danny Ainge, and has been an assistant coach since 2009.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 15, 2022

Cassell has worked as an assistant coach since 2009 after retiring as a player the year prior. He began his stint on the sidelines with the Wizards and remained in the nation’s capital until 2014. 

Cassell joined the Clippers that fall as an assistant on Doc Rivers’s staff. He stayed on with Los Angeles until 2020.

Rivers was fired after another early playoff exit with the Clippers that same season and made way for Philadelphia. Cassell followed him and has served as one of the Sixers top assistants for the past two seasons.

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A former All-Star point guard, Cassell played for 16 seasons in the NBA and won three championships. He won his third title in his final year in the league with the Celtics, with whom Ainge was the executive director of basketball operations at the time.

The Jazz have cast a wide net in the early parts of their search for a new coach following the resignation of Quin Snyder earlier this month. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that former Lakers head coach Frank Vogel was among those expected to receive an interview in Utah after his dismissal from the L.A. franchise earlier this offseason.

Jazz assistants Alex Jensen and Lamar Skeeter, Knicks assistant Johnnie Bryant, Celtics assistants Will Hardy and Joe Mazzulla, Bucks assistant Charles Lee, Heat assistant Chris Quinn, Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin, Suns assistant Kevin Young and former Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts are also on the initial list of candidates for the job, per Wojnarowski.

Utah finished this past season at 49–33 and was knocked out of the first round of the playoffs. The franchise has made the postseason six years in a row but has never made it past the second round in that span.

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