Sam Cassell is emerging as a leading candidate to replace Steve Kerr after the Warriors’ play-in loss ended their season, according to a prediction by a prominent NBA expert. With four NBA championships, all with the Warriors, Kerr is one of only 14 coaches in NBA history to win multiple titles.
But after the Warriors missed the playoffs for the second time in three years, Kerr strongly hinted that this, his 12th year as coach of the Warriors, could be his last. As a result, speculation immediately turned to his replacement.
In what may have been Kerr’s final game, the Warriors lost a play-in tournament game to the Phoenix Suns, 111-96, ending a difficult season that saw the team that won a championship as recently as 2022 lose 45 games and manage only the No. 10 seed, the fourth and final play-in spot.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Kerr told the media after the play-in loss, as quoted by ESPN. “I still love coaching, but I get it. These jobs all have an expiration date. There is a run that happens, and when the run ends, sometimes it’s time for new blood and new ideas.”
As of Monday, Kerr had not announced a final decision on his future. But in an analysis published Monday morning, FanSided NBA analyst Christopher Kline named five potential Kerr replacements, with one candidate rising above the rest.
Celtics Assistant on Top of the List
Sam Cassell, 56, played 15 seasons in the NBA, including three on championship teams, including his final season, 2007-08, with the Boston Celtics. Cassell was hired as an assistant coach by the Washington Wizards the following year and has served in the same capacity ever since for three other teams, including the last three with the Celtics under head coach Joe Mazzulla.
But despite being one of the most respected assistants in the league, Cassell has never been named to a head coaching position in the NBA.
According to Kline, the Warriors job could be Cassell’s first.
“The Mazzulla tree in general feels like ripe fruit for any team in need of a coach, but Cassell’s track record of player development — his close, hands-on work with Tyrese Maxey in Philadelphia, in particular — and his reputation for developing strong interpersonal relationships in a clubhouse is exactly what a rebuilding team should hope for,” Kline wrote in his FanSided piece.
“Cassell is less proven in the X’s and O’s department, but Saunders, Rivers and Mazzulla are all strong mentors in one way or another, and Cassell has that point guard I.Q. and a clear sense of how to develop players’ individual strengths in a broader context,” Kline continued. “The Sixers’ Harden-Maxey experiment does not flourish the way it did without Cassell working behind the scenes.”
Cassell Aspires to Be NBA Head Coach
The veteran assistant has openly expressed his aspiration to be an NBA head coach.
“Hopefully, it happens for me,” Cassell said, speaking to FanSided Celtics reporter Bobby Krivitsky. “I would like to have an opportunity to coach one of these teams, but the enjoyment I get from being a coach in basketball is seeing young men, when they are first getting in the league, and their progress in life in becoming good basketball players, becoming family men, and becoming fathers. That’s the part I enjoy.”
If the Warriors job does, in fact, open up, Cassell may finally get that chance.
Steve Kerr Replacement: Celtics Sam Cassell Emerges After Warriors’ Play-In Loss