Yesterday, Charlotte Hornets head coach Steve Clifford announced that he would be stepping down at the end of this season. He is reportedly sticking around in some sort of advisory role, so he won’t be completely gone from the franchise. With that news broken, the Hornets front office has quickly sprung into action and has begun the process of gathering interview candidates.
ESPN Sources: The Hornets have secured permission to interview several assistants for franchise’s head coaching opening: Denver’s David Adelman, Sacramento’s Jordi Fernandez, Boston’s Charles Lee and Phoenix’s Kevin Young. More candidates are expected to be interviewed.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 4, 2024
All of the names released so far are currently assistants on other teams, so the Hornets need to get permission to interview them. The candidates are:
- David Adelman
- Jordi Fernandez
- Charles Lee
- Kevin Young
David Adelman is the lead assistant with the Denver Nuggets and son of former longtime NBA coach Rick Adelman. He started his NBA career as a player development coach with the Timberwolves (under his dad). He’s been with the Nuggets since 2017.
Jordi Fernandez hails from Spain but has been coaching basketball stateside since 2006. He’s been the associate head coach of the Sacramento Kings since 2022. He has a degree in sports sciences, almost has a PhD in sports psychology, and has co-authored an academic paper that studied how teams’ behavioral patterns affect the success of offensive plays.
Charles Lee has been a hot name in the head coach search cycle for a little bit. He was an assistant on Mike Budenholzer’s staff in Atlanta and Milwaukee, ultimately serving as Budenholzer’s top assistant in his final year in MIlwaukee. After Budenholzer was fired by the Bucks, Lee latched on with the Celtics as their top assistant coach.
Kevin Young worked up the ladder from coaching a basketball team in Ireland to serving as an assistant at small colleges to coaching in the G League. He finally made it to an NBA bench when he was hired by the 76ers in 2016. He spent one season as an assistant under Monty Williams in the 2020-21 season before being elevated to associate head coach. The Suns almost hired him to be their head coach last offseason but instead made him the highest paid assistant coach in the league while hiring Frank Vogel to run the ship.
