Rumors

Michael Scotto: The Orlando Magic will add Riley Crean as an assistant coach, league sources told @hoopshype. Crean was the head video coordinator of the Dallas Mavericks and spent three of four seasons there working with Orlando Magic coach Sean Sweeney. Riley, 27, is the son of coach Tom Crean

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Tom Crean was the head coach at Indiana, where he coached OG Anunoby for two years. He is now an NBA and college basketball analyst.  Tom Crean: This was coming. I watched Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night from a hotel room. Early on, I could see OG Anunoby’s confidence. I’ve known him since he was 16. He was ready. In the closing seconds of the game, after he blocked a shot on the other end, he took the ball out of bounds to inbound it for the final play. I saw the way the San Antonio Spurs were playing him and thought: He’s going to be open if he stays on the perimeter.

New York Times

Tom Crean: When we recruited him, there was no question that he wanted to be shown, told and convinced about how he could become an NBA player. He felt in his heart that he was going to be that. Everybody you recruit thinks that, but he had incredible intent. It wasn’t: I want to make the NBA. It was: What is it really going to take for me to do this? How will we get there?

New York Times

Chris Hine: Anthony Edwards: "After he did what he did this summer, a bunch of dudes was texting me like, bro you gotta change this 'cause they gonna start doing it. Coach (Tom) Crean texted me about it. I was like, I just gotta change my free throws."

bsky.app

Andy Greer and Rick Brunson are Thibodeau loyalists and have been with him for years. Brunson, especially, is his muscle, someone who will say whatever he believes with vigor behind it. Darren Erman has been in New York since Thibodeau took over. Mo Cheeks is joining the staff for this season. He and Thibodeau have never before worked together, but Cheeks is a Hall of Fame player, a veteran assistant with head-coaching experience and, more relevant to this topic, a longtime friend of Thibodeau. In some ways, the answer to this question may be Dice Yoshimoto, a second-row coach without the résumés of the aforementioned but who sticks to Thibodeau like glue. Yoshimoto was a video coordinator for Thibodeau in Chicago and went with him to Minnesota before taking an assistant job under him in New York. During the year Thibodeau took off between the Timberwolves and Knicks, he got Yoshimoto a job at University of Georgia, working for Thibodeau’s friend, Tom Crean.

New York Times

Crean added that gradual team success with the Timberwolves over the past few years after being in a rebuild has only accelerated Edwards’ progression. “What he’s done is he’s taken that work, it’s built his confidence, he’s had some success, and he sniffed winning last year, and then this past season, he really got a great big dose of it. I think that’s what he needed. He needed to sense it and sniff it a little bit that year before, which propelled him into this year. I think it’s going to, or this past season, and I think it’s going to take him even further this coming year.”

essentiallysports.com

Regardless, Crean feels Edwards is more than ready for these big moments. “He can play at different speeds… The other thing he can see is so well, right? If he sees that double or if he sees that trap, now he’s got to be stronger with his passes, and he’s got to be a little bit better with his decision-making from watching these exhibitions, but he can make those passes, and he will make those passes,” Crean explained. “I think when you have that, that, that, he just, there’s so many different things they can do with him. But he’s not afraid of the big moment either. And I think that that’s going to help them at some point in time as well.”

essentiallysports.com

“Anthony is a very open-minded guy. He really is. I think he lets you know that he wants to get better by how you see his work and how he approaches things. With greats like that, it’s very easy to like him. He’s a very likable person. He’s very competitive. He’s very confident, but he’s not standoffish.”

essentiallysports.com

“OG is extremely excited,” his former Indiana coach Tom Crean told NJ Advance Media ahead of Wednesday’s NBA Draft. “If he was ever going to leave Toronto he wanted it to be New York and the Knicks and I know he truly wanted to stay here after his short time this past season.”

Newark Star-Ledger

Over the past two seasons, the Nets have received calls from a multitude of teams gauging Brooklyn’s interest in trading with Claxton, who has been viewed as the team’s potential center of the future. “I think Claxton has a ton of value around the league, especially on the defensive end,” a second NBA executive told HoopsHype. “I think his ability to handle the ball is unique for someone his size. That’s the way Tom Crean used him at Georgia. I think he’s got more upside on the offensive end.”

HoopsHype

Dwyane Wade: He can be better. America here is your number 1 pick! Ayo @VicOladipo we’re all built from the same cloth Flexed biceps That Tom Crean cloth!

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Adrian Wojnarowski: Nets plan to keep Claxton, who made remarkable improvement under Tom Crean at Georgia last season.

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Marc Weiszer: Asked UGA's Nicolas Claxton if he may test the NBA draft waters. Will he talk to his father about it? "We don't know yet," he said. Coach Tom Crean said: "I'm in a great place with Nic. We'll just ride all of that out."

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Dwyane Wade: I’m so happy for my Coach, Mentor,Father Figure and Friend @TomCrean on his new position with @UGABasketball ....The Wade’s are now proud supporters of the Bulldogs!!! Knowing what i know the community of Georgia better strap in because it’s gonna be a helluva ride!

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