One of the initial candidates to replace Quin Snyder as head coach of the Utah Jazz has reportedly gotten a promotion at his current job.
On Saturday, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported that Milwaukee Bucks assistant coach Charles Lee is getting promoted to associate head coach, although Charania reported that Lee is still is in the running for the Jazz’s opening.
Sources: Bucks are promoting assistant Charles Lee to associate head coach under Mike Budenholzer. Lee has been a head coaching candidate for several teams over the past two seasons, and remains a candidate for the Jazz’s current opening. Milwaukee prioritized a new deal for Lee.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 11, 2022
Lee is rather young in the NBA coaching world at age 37, but he has been a rising star since becoming an assistant in 2014 under current Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer with the Atlanta Hawks.
Ironically, Lee was hired then by the Hawks in part to replace Snyder, who had left a few months earlier to lead the Jazz.
After Budenholzer and Lee were together for four years in Atlanta, Budenholzer brought Lee to Milwaukee in 2018 when he changed jobs.
For three consecutive years, ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz has included Lee on his annual list of names people in NBA circles are talking about as future head coaches in the league.
In this year’s installment of the list published last month, Arnovitz wrote that Lee “has established himself as a multitool coach who projects confidence, emotional and tactical intelligence and affability. Colleagues marvel at his ability to relate to everyone, be it a two-way player (Lee played professionally overseas for four seasons) to an owner (he worked as a trader on Wall Street).
“A number of executives and coaches say that had Lee played one minute in the NBA (or had NBA bloodlines), he’d be gainfully employed as a head coach today. Such is the case in the NBA circa 2022, where owners and front offices increasingly favor those who have an NBA entry on Basketball Reference.”