LA Clippers: Ranking the top 3 coaching candidates

Here are the top three coaching candidates for the LA Clippers.

The LA Clippers have to find the right coach. They just have to. After letting Doc Rivers go on Monday, the team has a vacancy that must be filled as they work towards winning their first championship in 2021.

Who should they get though?

There are rumors circulating from in-house hires all the way to someone like Phil Jackson. While the team will keep quiet until they have completed their search, we can still speculate on who we think the top three choices would be. With that in mind, let’s go through the top three coaching choices for the Clippers next season.

3. Sam Cassell

I have Sam Cassell in third for one simple reason: He doesn’t have prior head coaching experience. While that isn’t necessarily a bad thing and some others want that for our team, it’s hard to rank him higher because there just isn’t enough history to know.

Cassell has been in the league for years, spending the last six as Doc Rivers’ assistant. He most notably helped work with the guards, aiding in Austin Rivers’ transformation into a decent rotational player. Prior to that in DC, he was instrumental in helping John Wall expand his game.

Despite not being a head coach before, he is drawing interest from several teams including the Houston Rockets where he won two of his three titles as a player. Sam was a journeyman in the league, playing for 8 teams in his career. While that’s not necessarily ideal as a player, he was able to gain different perspectives from multiple coaches which ultimately makes him a more well-rounded candidate.

If Houston does decide to forgo him in lieu of someone else (Doc Rivers is now a candidate), Cassell could be a dark horse to slide into the lead chair for the LA Clippers.