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Portland Trail Blazers assistant coaches David Vanterpool and Nate Tibbetts are expected to be among the pool of assistant coaches the Atlanta Hawks will sift through to find their new head coach, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. The Hawks mutually parted ways with former head coach Mike Budenholzer Wednesday evening; he’s recently been linked to the New York Knicks and their head coach vacancy.
Sources: Among current assistant coaches expected to be a part of the Hawks search to replace Budenholzer: Charlotte's Stephen Silas, Portland's Nate Tibbetts and David Vanterpool, San Antonio's Ime Udoka and James Borrego.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 26, 2018
Sam Amick of USA Today followed up Wojnarowski with a more concrete status on Tibbetts, at least:
Hawks expected to talk to David Fizdale and Nate Tibbetts, among others, I'm told. When Hawks GM Travis Schlenk was asst GM with Golden State, Tibbetts interviewed to be Steve Kerr's top assistant before Mike Brown was hired.
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) April 26, 2018
Vanterpool just wrapped up his sixth regular season with the Blazers, making a previous stop in Oklahoma City as a scout after his playing days. Tibbetts just finished up his fifth regular season with the Blazers, having worked his way up from the D-League to an eventual assistant job with the Cleveland Cavaliers before Portland.
Both are on the radars of executives around the league, as a league-wide poll published by Yahoo in April shows executives believe they’re among the top assistant coaches who are ready to take the next step up to head coaching.
Wojnarowski said recently Vanterpool “could” be a candidate for the Orlando Magic head-coaching gig after they parted ways with Frank Vogel as well.