Nick Nurse is the new head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers but he now needs to work on putting together a coaching staff. The Sixers have some coaches to hire and already found a good one: former Sacramento Kings assistant coach Bobby Jackson.
Jackson is going to join Nurse's staff with the Sixers, according to NBA reporter Marc Stein. The report was confirmed first by James Ham of ESPN 1320 and then by Shams Charania of The Athletic.
After three seasons as an assistant coach for the Kings, Jackson coached their G League team (the Stockton Kings) for the last two seasons, which featured a league-best 25-7 record last regular season. He worked with the Kings from 2010 to 2012 and for the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2013.
As a player, Jackson won the Sixth Man of the Year Award in the 2002-03 season and spent half of his 12-year career with the Kings as they battled the Shaq-and-Kobe Los Angeles Lakers for Western Conference supremacy. His addition to the Sixers' coaching staff is the first for Nurse.
Jackson has familiarity with Sixers assistant Dave Joerger, whose tenure as Sacramento's head coach overlapped with Jackson's second coaching stint, but it's unclear if Joerger will stick around in Philly. Sam Cassell, a Sixers assistant coach for the past three seasons and a candidate for the head coach job after Doc Rivers' firing, left to take the same job for the Boston Celtics.
Stein noted that Rico Hines, the Toronto Raptors developmental coach, is “a candidate” to join the Sixers' coaching staff. He worked with Jackson in Sacramento and with Nurse in Toronto last season. Michael Grange of Sportsnet previously noted that Hines is linked to Philly.
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