Daily Thunder.com Thunder hire two assistant coaches

Per Thunder Rumblings:

Maurice Cheeks and Rex Kalamian have been hired as an assistant coaches by the Thunder. It was previously reported that Dale Osbourne, a former assistant with the Utah Flash, has taken a job with Oklahoma City. But it appears Osbourne will join the Tulsa 66ers, the D-League affiliate of the Thunder, in some capacity.

30023 Cheeks most recently was the head coach of the 76ers (2005-2008) and has been the head man with Portland as well. He was also a 15-year veteran in the NBA playing point guard and was actually teammates with Scott Brooks at one point. I must say that I’m thrilled with Cheeks coming on staff. He’s a great person and a great basketball mind. Not to mention he was named NBA All-Defense five times and was a four-time All-Star. The Thunder’s got some players that can certainly benefit from Cheeks’ defensive wisdom. rex_kalamian

Kalamian was an assistant with Brooks in Denver and was most recently an assistant in Sacramento. He’s spent time in Minnesota, Los Angeles (Clippers) and also two seasons in Philly before Cheeks was the head coach there. I must say I don’t know much about him. He “specializes” in player development, which is right up the Thunder’s alley.

11 comments

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Chas

Cheeks seems to be a genuinely good guy and I'm positive the players are going to love interacting with him. VERY EXCITE!

Robert

Nix :
I wonder if him being a former head coach will cause any problems.
Those are the kind of problems the fans never see and hardly hear about.

I was thinking the same thing.

Andrew

I think the Cheeks signing is huge. He is a good coach. He did a good job with Philly and did not deserve to get fired, he was just placed in an awkward position of getting a new GM during his coaching tenure. Most GM's want to have their own coach. Glad we got Cheeks.

f5alcon

he will be a good mentor for westbrook, maybe can help durant on defense, no erason he cant average 2 blocks and a steal a game.

Royce

@Scott
Good call Scott. Thanks.

Scott

Osbourne will be the assistant coach of the Tulsa 66ers, FYI.

J.G.

@Bryan
The signing of Elton Brand. :)

Bryan

Forgive my ignorance, but, how did he lose his head coaching job again?

Nix

I wonder if him being a former head coach will cause any problems.

Those are the kind of problems the fans never see and hardly hear about.

Jax Raging Bile Duct

Oh great. I should really follow the link before I post a comment.

I was hoping we would get Cheeks. I've always like his game. Also, anyone remember when that girl was attempting to sing the national anthem before a game, but forgot the words, so Mo walked up and helped her sing through it? I was a fan of his before then, but that sealed the deal for me.

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