While a couple of the big chairs have yet to be filled — Houston still hasn’t settled on a coach, neither has Memphis — the assistant coaching spots around the league are starting to fill up.
Marc Stein of ESPN dropped some nuggets about the bench of Nate McMillan in Indiana and Dave Joerger in Sacramento:
The latest assistant coaching chatter ... if that's your game: Indiana is in pursuit of Bill Bayno for Nate McMillan's bench, while ...
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) May 24, 2016
While Dave Joerger lasers in on Elston Turner and Bryan Gates for his first Kings staff with holdovers Corliss Willamson and Nancy Lieberman
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) May 24, 2016
Bayno, the former UNLV head coach, had not been in the NBA this season but had been with Dwane Casey in Toronto the two seasons before that, and before that had been an assistant with Minnesota and Portland.
Corliss Willamson had been popular with players in Sacramento, as had Nancy Lieberman — but she also had a big fan on owner Vivek Ranadive. She is one of only two full-time female assistant coaches in the NBA (along with Becky Hammond in San Antonio).