The Hawks have been granted permission by the Trail Blazers to meet with Portland assistant coach Nate Tibbetts, league sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Wojnarowski describes Tibbetts as a “serious” candidate to fill Atlanta’s head coaching vacancy.
Tibbetts, who was recently identified by several league executives as one of the NBA’s up-and-coming assistants who deserves head coaching consideration, was reported to be a candidate for the Hawks’ job shortly after the team parted ways with Mike Budenholzer.
That list of candidates also included former Grizzlies head coach David Fizdale, Hornets assistant Stephen Silas, and Spurs assistants Ime Udoka and James Borrego. Meanwhile, Michael Cunningham of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution added one more name to the mix on Thursday, writing that Darvin Ham – a Hawks assistant throughout Budenholzer’s tenure – could be in the mix.
Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk has said there’s no set timeline for the club’s coaching search, but he expects to have a new head coach in place before the NBA draft on June 21, per Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“We are going to find the right head coach for the Atlanta Hawks,” Schlenk said. “That coach is going to have the same job description or same end game as I do and that’s to try to bring a championship to the Atlanta Hawks.”
I thought David Vanterpool would get more attention as a prospective head coach than Tibbetts. Either way, Jay Triano took over the Suns and it looks like at least one assistant coach from Portland is gonna be a head coach. Keeps the whole lineage going from Rick Carlisle to Dwayne Casey and Terry Stotts further down to other coaches. It’s nice to see these head coaches grooming assistants into head coaches. You wouldn’t have Mike Budenholzer or Brett Brown without Gregg Popovich. Who, geez man, I hope he’s doing alright. There’s nothing harder to go through. I wish strength upon him and his family, the love he’s showed to his players is definitely reciprocated and I’m glad to know he has support going through this.