NBA Rumors: PJ Carlesimo Replacing Mike D’Antoni On Philadelphia 76ers Coaching Staff

NBA rumors are swirling around PJ Carlesimo. After spending a couple of years away from the league, he’s reportedly set to make his return. According to FanSided, Carlesimo could replace Mike D’Antoni on the Philadelphia 76ers coaching staff if he ends up being hired by the Houston Rockets.

Mike D’Antoni has emerged as a top candidate to take over as the next head coach of the Houston Rockets. He’s managed to score himself a second interview this week. That means that Rockets management is very much interested in hiring him. D’Antoni is said to be meeting with Rockets owner Leslie Alexander, which is a very good sign for him.

If Mike D’Antoni gets hired by the Houston Rockets, then the Philadelphia 76ers are going to have a vacancy on their coaching staff. Brett Brown is going to need someone to become his associate head coach. With so many younger players on the Sixers roster, Brown is going to need to find an experienced coach to be his lead assistant.

PJ Carlesimo has plenty of experience as a coach in the NBA. Between college and the professional level, he has more than 40 years of experience. Carlesimo has also been a head coach in the National Basketball Association with three different franchises. He can certainly help Brett Brown develop the younger players on the roster.

PJ Carlesimo has not coached in the NBA since 2013. That was when he was the interim head coach for the Brooklyn Nets after the franchise fired Avery Johnson. Carlesimo did a respectable job for the Nets, but they opted to go in a different direction instead of promoting him to the head coaching job on a permanent basis.

A relationship with Jerry Colangelo is a big reason why PJ Carlesimo has a very good chance at being hired by the Philadelphia 76ers. Colangelo was initially hired to run the Sixers, but he moved to a consultant position once he hired his son, Bryan Colangelo, to take over the franchise. Carlesimo and Colangelo worked together on the U.S. national team.

There’s also a relationship between PJ Carlesimo and Brett Brown. The two of them worked together as assistant coaches under Gregg Popovich when they were all with the San Antonio Spurs. Carlesimo rebuilt his reputation as a coach while working under Popovich.

With the Philadelphia 76ers owning the first overall pick in the NBA Draft, PJ Carlesimo will have the opportunity to help develop someone that might become a franchise player in the future. It will more than likely be Ben Simmons or Brandon Ingram. Those are the consensus two best players coming out of the college this year.

In addition to being able to work with either Ben Simmons or Brandon Ingram, PJ Carlesimo will have three big men with high potential to become stars. Nerlens Noel, Jahlil Okafor, and Joel Embiid were all high draft picks. The Philadelphia 76ers need at least one of them to become a franchise player.

The odds of PJ Carlesimo becoming a head coach in the NBA again aren’t all that great. However, if he can help turn around the Philadelphia 76ers, then those odds increase. Executives know just how difficult of a task that is because the team has been bad for such a long period of time.

PJ Carlesimo wants badly to get back to the NBA, and he might have just found an opportunity to do so. He simply needs the Houston Rockets to choose an experienced Mike D’Antoni as their next head coach instead of taking a gamble on Charlotte Hornets assistant coach Stephen Silas.

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