The Cleveland Cavaliers have reportedly interviewed another potential head coaching candidate, with this time being San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Ettore Messina.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are now churning away when it comes to their head coaching search, which is probably the biggest focus for them this offseason.
General manager Koby Altman and the front office fully understand how important the next head coach of the franchise is in relation to Cleveland getting the most out of their young pieces in the coming years in Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman, Ante Zizic and likely coming draft picks in the near future.
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We’ve touched on the reported names that have been linked as potential candidates for Cleveland’s head coaching position, and at this point, here is the list that has already been interviewed, courtesy of Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, who also hit on how the Cavs interviewed San Antonio Spurs well-respected assistant coach Ime Udoka for Cleveland’s head coaching job on Sunday.
Fedor has previously noted how the Cavs met with Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Jamahl Mosley, who seems to be a good candidate that may ready for the jump to head coach, and in the aforementioned piece, Fedor said that Cleveland has also already interviewed “Miami assistant Juwan Howard, former Grizzlies head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and Utah assistant Alex Jensen.”
Additionally, it was reported by Fedor that another Spurs well-respected assistant coach, Ettore Messina, was interviewing with the Cavaliers on Wednesday, and later in the day, the Associated Press’ Tom Withers confirmed that Messina did indeed meet with Cleveland regarding the team’s head coaching position.
#Cavs meeting with Spurs assistant Ettore Messina today, league sources tell @clevelanddotcom
— Chris Fedor (@ChrisFedor) May 8, 2019
#Cavs interviewed #Spurs assistant Ettore Messina for their coaching job today.
— Tom Withers (@twithersAP) May 8, 2019
Messina has reportedly been a key assistant for San Antonio since 2014, as Fedor noted in a previously mentioned piece, and Messina has quite the head coaching resume overseas, which is likely the prime reason why Cleveland is seemingly considering him as a head coaching candidate to lead the team back to relevance in the next few years.
Here’s the resume of Messina Fedor alluded to.
"“A four-time EuroLeague champion head coach, two-time EuroLeague Coach of the Year, seven-time Italian Cup winner, five-time Russian League champion and four-time Russian League Coach of the Year, Messina is considered one of of the best European coaches of all time.”"
The 59-year-old Messina clearly is a winner, and being a trusted assistant of Gregg Popovich‘s, just like Udoka, is going to get interviews.
When it comes to other reported names for Cleveland’s head coaching position (of which we’ve often touched on in the last few weeks), it appears that the Cavs will eventually interview Portland Trail Blazers assistant coaches David Vanterpool and Nate Tibbetts, in addition to Denver Nuggets assistant coaches Wes Unseld Jr. and Jordi Fernandez, as it’s been reported that Cleveland has been given permission to interview those potential candidates.
The Cleveland Cavaliers and former head coach Larry Drew mutually parted ways shortly after the 2018-19 season ended, as was reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium; Drew went 19-57 last year (per Basketball Reference) after taking over for Tyronn Lue, who was reportedly fired after starting last season 0-6.
As an additional note, according to Sam Amico of Amico Hoops in an appearance on 92.3 The Fan’s “Baskin and Phelps” on Monday, it seems that the Cavs will wait until at least after the 2019 NBA Draft lottery (which is on May 14) to hire a head coach, and that appears to be smart, with how imperative it is to get this right for the long-term.