Jeff Van Gundy agrees to deal to turn out to be Clippers’ lead assistant, per supply: The way it suits
Jeff Van Gundy and the Los Angeles Clippers have agreed to a deal that may carry the previous tv analyst to the group as a lead assistant on coach Tyronn Lue’s workers, a group supply confirmed Tuesday.
ESPN first reported the information.
Van Gundy, 62, spent the 2024 season as a senior advisor to the Boston Celtics, serving to the group obtain a file 18th championship after the group’s Sport 5 victory over the Dallas Mavericks within the NBA Finals on Monday.
Earlier than becoming a member of the Celtics, Van Gundy labored as an analyst for ESPN for 16 years, however was let go amid a spherical of cost-saving layoffs on the community final June.
He joined ESPN in 2007 — the place he made notable appearances on NBA Finals broadcasts alongside Mike Breen and Mark Jackson throughout his time on the community — after 11 seasons within the NBA as head coach of the New York Knicks and Houston Rockets. His main league teaching file was 430-318 (.575).
Lue performed for a season underneath Van Gundy whereas with the Rockets in 2004, and the 2 coached collectively on the NBA workers.
How Van Gundy suits with the Clippers
The Clippers have already had an energetic offseason concerning their teaching scenario, as they prolonged Lue’s contract for 5 years in Could. However Lou misplaced a number of members of his teaching workers, together with assistant coach Dan Craig, the group’s de facto defensive coordinator. Craig left the group to work as a head assistant for the Chicago Bulls.
That is the place Van Gundy is available in. The Clippers described Van Gundy as “one of many brightest basketball minds on the earth.” Lue started the 2004-05 season with the Van Gundy Rockets earlier than being traded to Atlanta for John Barry. Twenty years later, Van Gundy and Lowe are on the identical group once more.
Moreover bringing in a brand new voice, will probably be fascinating to see if Lue decides to have Van Gundy run the Clippers’ protection as a substitute of Craig. Lue’s 2004-05 Rockets ranked fourth in defensive effectivity whereas permitting the fewest factors within the paint. Notably, he had future Corridor of Fame facilities Yao Ming and Dikembe Mutombo manning the paint. Van Gundy’s teaching tree consists of Tom Thibodeau, recognized for packing the paint up to now as coach of the New York Knicks.
Van Gundy hasn’t been an NBA coach since 2007 and hasn’t been an assistant for the reason that Knicks fired Don Nelson in March 1996. However Van Gundy has stored his thoughts contemporary on basketball, serving as a guide with this 12 months’s championship-winning Celtics group. final season whereas guiding USA Basketball to the 2017 AmeriCup Championship and the 2019 FIBA ​​World Cup Qualifiers.
One other coach to look at on Lue’s workers is Dahntay Jones. Final 12 months, Jones led the Clippers within the Summer season League, and he’s anticipated to steer in that position once more, in response to a group supply. When Craig was injured in 2022, Jones was given elevated duties to assist run the protection. Now, Jones may work with Van Gundy because the Clippers look to enhance from a season by which the Clippers ranked sixteenth in defensive effectivity. — Lou Murray, Clippers workers author
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(Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Photos)
