New Orleans Pelicans steal defensive guru Darren Erman from Celtics

The New Orleans Pelicans are building a staff around new head coach Alvin Gentry, and it looks like Boston Celtics' assistant Darren Erman will be part of the foundation. Erman will serve as associate head coach, according to Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski.

This marks the end of Erman's second stint with the C's, he was also here from 2007-2010 under Doc Rivers before joining Brad Stevens' crew last season. Erman is probably best known for transforming the Warriors defense into a juggernaut and then promptly getting the ax for recording conversations between the team's coaches and players. Erman's exit followed the demotion of the White Mamba to the D-League, and you can't help but think he was acting as a mole to management following Scalabrine's strange departure.

There were no such issues with Erman in Boston, as Ainge watched him significantly improve the Celtics' defense in the 2014-2015 season. A. Sherrod Blakely notes the loss of Erman is going to hurt this offseason, when he was set to spend time working on Marcus Smart's shooting. Klay Thompson credits Erman's tutelage for helping his development, and it appears the Celtics were looking for Erman to do the same with Smart. No word yet on how the Celtics plan to fill the void on Stevens' staff.


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