Former players are starting to garner interest across the league.
Two former Los Angeles Clippers are in the mix for head coaching jobs this offseason, and there is a real chance at least one of them is running a team by October.
Rajon Rondo is a finalist for the New Orleans Pelicans job, while Jared Dudley just sat down with the Portland Trail Blazers about their opening.
The Clippers Connection
Dudley was with the Clippers in the 2013-14 season after arriving from Phoenix in a three-team deal, starting 42 games before losing his spot to Matt Barnes.
Rondo came through a few years later during the 2020-21 season after a midseason trade from the Atlanta Hawks, playing 18 games and averaging 7.6 points and 5.8 assists off the bench.
Neither guy was in Los Angeles for very long, but both were respected in the locker room while they were there, and they also won a ring together with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020.
The Clippers are dealing with their own stuff right now after finishing 42-40 and getting knocked out in the play-in by the Golden State Warriors.
Between Kawhi Leonard's uncertain future and a roster still trying to figure out what it looks like around Darius Garland, familiar faces from past Clippers teams keep popping up in new places.
Rondo and the Pelicans Rebuild
Rondo put up 9.8 points and 7.9 assists across 957 career games over 16 seasons, and pretty much everyone who played with him or coached him would say he was one of the sharpest point guards the league has seen.
He spent the last two years on Doc Rivers' coaching staff in Milwaukee, and with the Bucks going 32-50 before Rivers stepped down, Rondo is ready to do it on his own.
The Pelicans finished 26-56, the second worst record in the Western Conference, so whoever takes that job has a lot of work ahead of them.
Rondo played for New Orleans in 2017-18 when they swept Portland in the first round, so the city already knows him and he knows what the franchise is about.
Dudley's Shot in Portland
Dudley went straight into coaching once his 14-year playing career wrapped up in 2021, spending four seasons as an assistant under Jason Kidd in Dallas and then joining David Adelman in Denver as the lead assistant this past season.
The Trail Blazers went 42-40 and made the playoffs under interim coach Tiago Splitter, but the San Antonio Spurs sent them home in five games, and the front office is now talking to a long list of candidates.
With the Clippers navigating their own offseason questions, Dudley's ability to connect with younger players could be exactly what Portland needs around a roster built on Deni Avdija and Shaedon Sharpe.
Rondo and Dudley were never the flashiest players on any roster they suited up for, but they always understood the game better than most.
That tends to matter a whole lot more in coaching than scoring averages ever did.