NBA rumors: 2 former head coaches Celtics have on radar, but there's a catch

The Boston Celtics currently have their eyes on adding two former NBA head coaches to their staff this summer.

The Boston Celtics currently find themselves on the verge of elimination, as they are trailing 3-0 in this year's best-of-seven Eastern Conference Finals series against the Miami Heat. As is generally the case when it comes to top-billed teams that underwhelm come playoff time, head coach Joe Mazzulla is receiving the lion's share of the blame for the club's current predicament.

Naturally, the 34-year-old has run into some serious growing pains throughout the 2022-23 campaign, as it's his first season leading the charge for an NBA team. However, regardless of the reasoning, many are hoping to see Brad Stevens and company shake up the coaching staff this summer to improve productivity from a game-planning and overall sideline perspective.

While expectations are that the Celtics will ultimately wind up holding onto Joe Mazzulla for at least another season, NBA insider Marc Stein recently reported that the front office is, in fact, looking into adding some established basketball minds to their headman's staff, with Frank Vogel and Stephen Silas being two names, in specific, that are currently on their radar.

“We shouldn’t forget that the Celtics who reached last season’s NBA Finals didn’t just lose Udoka and the undeniably edgy vibe he brought to this team from the sideline. They also lost Will Hardy, who just proved his coaching acumen by steering Utah to a 37-45 season when the Jazz were supposed to win roughly half that many games, as well as Damon Stoudamire (who left Boston for the Georgia Tech job in March). No surprise, then, that there were strong rumbles in circulation — even before the Miami series started — that the Celtics had interest in trying to hire both Frank Vogel and Stephen Silas as assistant coaches for next season,” Marc Stein wrote.

Silas, a Boston native, is a long-time assistant who last held the position of head coach of the Houston Rockets from 2020-23 while Vogel has 11 years of NBA head coaching experience where he holds a record of 431-389 and guided the Los Angeles Lakers to their 17 championship back in 2020.