Damon Stoudamire leaving Celtics for Georgia Tech; Would love for Boston to actually fill this coaching vacancy

Damon Stoudamire has accepted the head coaching position at Georgia Tech and has informed the Celtics that he's leaving them. The Celtics responded with all the right kind things to say when a guy leaves. Ever since the Celtics selected Brad Stevens' guy, Joe Mazzulla, to become the interim head coach in Ime Udoka's place in stead of Stoudamire, people wondered if Damon would move on.

I didn't think it would be a month before the playoffs, but here we are. This means the Celtics are now down their head coach and two top assistant from last year's NBA Finals team.

When Will Hardy accepted the head coaching job with Danny Ainge and the Utah Jazz, Mazzulla and Stoudamire were expected to step up with even larger roles. Then the Udoka scandal and suspension hit and Mazzulla's larger role was actually being the head guy. The Celtics didn't go out and hire another experienced coach to help Mazzulla navigate his rookie season coaching.

Mazzulla earned the full time head coaching position and a contract extension over the all-star break, but while the Celtics still own the second best record in the NBA, Joe is dealt with a good deal of blowback from Celtics media and fans of late. You'd wonder id a veteran ex NBA head coach on the bench could have helped him. Think a Larry Brown type back in the day. Or a Thibs to Doc Rivers.

And now the buzz is that the Celtics have no immediate plans to replace Stoudamire. This seems like a mistake. You were expecting to have a head coach coming off an NBA Finals visit, with Hardy, Mazzulla, and Stoudamire as assistants. Now you have a rookie coach and none of those three as assistants. Seems risky not to hire another solid assistant coach.

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