Cassell played two seasons at Florida State before being drafted by the Houston Rockets at pick 24.
Boston’s associate head coach Sam Cassell is linked with the head coaching job at Florida State University according to Heavy Sports’ Steve Bulpett.
Last week FSU’s basketball coach Leonard Hamilton announced he is resigning as head coach at the end of the season. Hamilton is the all-time winningest coach at Florida State after coaching for 23 seasons.
Now, the Seminoles will look for a successor and Boston’s Sam Cassell is a name being mentioned. Cassell is a former Seminole playing his junior and senior seasons in Tallahassee.
In the report, Bulpett mentioned that Cassell stated three things regarding the speculation:
- He is extremely comfortable in his position with the Celtics.
- He will, of course, have to listen to NBA and college offers that come his way.
- He has NOT heard anything from Florida State regarding the job that will come open in the wake of Leonard Hamilton announcing last week he will step down at the end of this year.
Cassell has been a name that has been linked to various head coaching jobs in the NBA, but he has yet to land the title of head coach. He’s interviewed with both Los Angeles teams in the past. Cassell interviewed for the Lakers job before they decided to hire JJ Redick.
Although he hasn’t been a head coach, he has been a trusted and highly valued assistant coach over his career. After playing 15 seasons in the league, Cassell has been an assistant coach with four different teams (Washington Wizards, LA Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers, and the Boston Celtics). After his stint in Washington, Cassell joined Doc Rivers in LA and followed him to Philadelphia when Doc was named the Sixers coach back in 2020.
Cassell has played a big role on Joe Mazzulla’s staff. After Boston won the championship in 2024, the Milwaukee Bucks and Doc Rivers tried to poach Cassell from Boston which he declined.
The 3x NBA Champion (as a player), told Bulpett that he still wants to be a head coach, but said, “it’s got to be the right job.”
“The ducks got to line up in a row correctly for me to think about leaving to accept another job. This place has been treating me too good for me to just leave. Joe Mazzulla’s been great to me. Brad’s been great to me.
“Doc wanted me to come to Milwaukee with him after we won the championship … Couldn’t do it. Couldn’t do it.
“I mean, everything’s good over here. We’re just trying to defend our title — get through this regular season and mix it all up again.”
It’s hard to believe going back to your alma mater at a big-time ACC school wouldn’t check the box as the “right job,” but as Cassell said to Bulpett, he has yet to be contacted by FSU’s athletic director.
The Celtics have a history of letting bench coaches leave for college programs. In 2023, Damon Stoudamire left to take Georgia Tech’s job. Before Stoudamire, Kara Lawson was Brad Stevens’ assistant coach and she left in the summer of 2020 to become the head coach of Duke University.