Hornets hire Ronald Nored as assistant coach

The Charlotte Hornets are hiring Ronald Nored to work as an assistant coach under new head coach Jeff Borrego, according to Adrian Wojnarowski:

Nored joins Jay Triano and Jay Hernandez on the Hornets coaching staff (think he would be up for changing his name to Jay for solidarity?).

At just 28-years old, Nored is one of the youngest coaches in the NBA, but he has coached at various levels in just six seasons. He was a four-year player at Butler and played for Brad Stevens when the Bulldogs went to back-to-back National Championship games. After going undrafted in 2012, Nored jumped into coaching, starting as the head coach of Brownsburg High School in Indiana. He spent a season coaching at Brownsburg before joining the staff at the University of South Alabama.

That stint was short lived, however, once Stevens called and offered Nored a job with the Boston Celtics. Nored worked for a year as an assistant for the Maine Red Claws, and then worked as a player development coach for the Celtics the following year. He then returned to college hoops, working as an assistant for Northern Kentucky for one season. The Nets then hired him to coach the Long Island Nets of the G-League in 2016. He spent two seasons as head coach, going 17-33 his first season and 27-23 his second.

Additionally, Nored worked as an assistant for Jeff Van Gundy with the men’s national team.

While Nored spent just two seasons with the Celtics, he cited Stevens as his biggest influence, stating, “He kind of laid out the blueprint for me when I was a player. It gave me a window into the coaching world.”

In the same article, Nored said one of the challenges of the G-League is having players buy in to working together when the goal for each of them is to move beyond their current situation. “You have to figure out a way to get them to want to achieve the same goal while explaining that it will still help them achieve their individual goal.” While the stakes are different at the NBA level, having the entire team buy in can make a difference. In Charlotte’s case, buying in prompted their past two playoff appearances.

Nored was considered one of the “top young minds” among the Nets organization. Based on an already long resume of coaching stops, he seems determined to move up the coaching ranks in the NBA.

With Nored’s hiring, JB’s staff is coming together nicely. Nored seems like an ideal type of coach to develop the younger players (in particular, the guards). Triano serves as the veteran coach with head coaching experience, while Hernandez is the familiar face having worked with Borrego before in Orlando. If my counting is correct, the team still has one or two spots to fill on the primary coaching staff, so we’ll keep an eye out for news in the future. In the mean time, share your thoughts on Nored and the rest of the staff below. Whatever your thoughts, there’s at least one guy who’s a fan of the hire: