Celtics reportedly losing yet another key member of coaching staff

A year of heavy turnover in the coaching ranks for the Boston Celtics has come with yet another departure, as assistant Damon Stoudamire will depart the organization to become the next head coach at Georgia Tech.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Adrian Wojnarowski were the first to report the news.

• Brought into the mix in Sept. 2021 as part of Ime Udoka’s staff, Stoudamire remained with the organization following Udoka’s year-long suspension and eventual dismissal by way of Joe Mazzulla’s in-season promotion to full-time C’s head coach, and emerged as a top assistant for Mazzulla.

  Stoudamire even coached as the interim head coach to the interim head coach when Mazzulla dealt with an eye ailment, and led the Celtics to a 2-0 record during that mini-run as the C’s top coach.

• 

  Dec 27, 2022; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics assistant coach Damon Stoudamire reacts during the first half against the Houston Rockets at TD Garden. (Paul Rutherford/USA TODAY Sports)

• For Stoudamire, the move to Georgia Tech comes with a return to his coaching roots in some respects, as Stoudamire carved out an impressive college coaching resume before jumping to the Celtics in 2021.

  Prior to his move to the Celtics, Stoudamire spent five seasons at the University of Pacific as the team’s head coach. Stoudamire led Pacific to a 23-10 finish in 2019-20 (their best mark since 2012-13), and won both the West Coast Conference Coach of the Year award and the Ben Jobe National Coach of the Year award, which given annually to the top minority coach at the D-I level.

  Overall, Stoudamire posted a 71-77 record during his five-season run at Pacific.

  He’ll now be tasked with returning Georgia Tech to relevancy after a seven-year run under Josh Pastner that included just one trip to the March Madness tournament (2021).

• 

  Nov 30, 2022; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla talks with forward Jayson Tatum (0) and center Al Horford (42) from the sideline as they take on the Miami Heat at TD Garden. (David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports)

• For the Celtics, however, Stoudamire’s departure means that the Celtics have now lost three coaches since the end of last season. Udoka is the big name among that group, of course, but the Celtics also lost former top assistant Will Hardy to the Jazz over the summer, and Stoudamire’s departure creates an in-season void.

  The most likely path for the Celtics here is to increase the responsibilities on the plate of assistant Ben Sullivan.

  Sullivan served as the head coach of the Celtics’ Summer League team in 2022, and has plenty of NBA experience. Most notably, Sullivan served as an assistant coach on the Bucks team that won the NBA title in 2021, and actually got his start as an assistant video coordinator with the Spurs under Gregg Popovich.

  The Celtics currently sit at 47-21 on the year, and are 1.5 games behind the Bucks for the No. 1 seed.