David

Vanterpool

Vanterpool, who spent the last two seasons as the Timberwolves’ associate head coach, will replace Ime Udoka, who signed on to become the Celtics’ new head coach last month.

Suns GM James Jones and VP of basketball operations Jeff Bower will meet with Vanterpool on Saturday. Vanterpool has been with the Blazers since 2012, joining them from the Oklahoma City Thunder front office. The Suns and Cavs also plan to meet with Blazers assistant Nate Tibbetts as well.

Sixers assistant Monty Williams is the other candidate Phoenix is planning to speak with. Vanterpool is a respected assistant and has been in the running for other head coaching gigs before, including the Nuggets job back in 2015.

Mike Malone, Melvin Hunt, and Mike D’Antoni were thought to be the three finalists for the job, so the Blazers assistant is a bit of a surprise entry. We’ll keep an eye on this situation, but it looks like we’ll have some twists in the road before the Nuggets decide on a head coach.