Smitch to be Avery's Fallback in NJ?

[lethalweapon3]

Probably safe to scratch him off the Hawks' assistant-coaching candidate list...

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/16746/nets-interested-in-mitchell-for-assistant-gig

Of the seven coaching vacancies in the NBA since the season ended, only two remain unfilled.

Yet former Toronto Raptors coach Sam Mitchell will have received scant consideration for any of them unless he gets an interview with the Los Angeles Clippers or unexpectedly materializes as a fallback candidate in Cleveland, where the Cavaliers are still waiting on a yea-or-nea response from Michigan State’s Tom Izzo.

Mitchell, though, is in the mix for a new job. NBA coaching sources told ESPN.com that Mitchell will be interviewed this week by the Nets as a potential top assistant to new coach Avery Johnson, who wants at least one former head coach on the bench with him in New Jersey.

After winning NBA Coach of the Year honors in 2006-07 and signing a four-year contract extension, Mitchell lasted only one more full season with the Raps before his dismissal in Toronto in December 2008. But he recently told the Toronto Sun that he accepts the notion that he’ll probably have to work as an assistant coach first before getting his next opportunity as a head coach … even though no one has really told him why.

“Being an assistant would be fine,” Mitchell told the newspaper. “But I want to make sure it’s in a good place -- a team that not only has a chance to win, but to be with someone who brings something different to me, where I can actually learn something. I’m still a young coach. I still have a lot of things to learn.”

Mitchell did get a look from Philadelphia before the 76ers hired Doug Collins, but the Atlanta resident curiously received no serious interest from the Hawks, who ultimately promoted former Mike Woodson assistant coach Larry Drew into Woodson’s chair after interviewing Dallas Mavericks assistant Dwane Casey, ESPN’s Mark Jackson and Johnson.