Jay Larranaga, Micah Shrewsberry to coach Celtics at summer leagues
Earlier this week, the NBA released the schedules for next month's offseason tournaments. While the Celtics have usually taken part in the Orlando Pro Summer League, organized by the Magic, this year they will instead be sending a team to the reborn Utah Jazz Summer League, which was discontinued after the 2008 edition, as well as to the main event, the 24-team NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.
As ESPN's Chris Forsberg reports, assistants Jay Larranaga and Micah Shrewsberry will be splitting coaching duties, with Larranaga in Utah and Shrewsberry in Vegas. Head coach Brad Stevens explained that Larranaga, who has been with Boston since 2012, will only be working the three-game Utah league to avoid burnout.
Larranaga has coached the summer Celtics each of the past two years and has also worked as an assistant for Ukraine's national team under NBA veteran Mike Fratello. Ukraine was set to host this year's EuroBasket in September and was allowed to keep its automatic qualifying spot in the tournament when the event was moved elsewhere due to the ongoing unrest in that country.
Shrewsberry worked for Stevens at Butler before moving to cross-state rival Purdue. The two were reunited when Stevens took the head job in Boston, and the Summer League experience will give him a first taste of NBA head coaching.
There is no word yet regarding the involvement of the Celtics' other assistants, Walter McCarty and Jamie Young, both of whom have been at Summer League in the past. Stevens, for his part, will be participating in Basketball Without Borders camps this summer. Rosters will be announced at some point between the draft on June 25 and the start of play on July 6.
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