Billy Donovan has long been mentioned as a potential candidate to coach in the NBA after his flirtation with the Magic years ago, as the NY Knicks, Minnesota Timberwolves and LA Lakers could be options for the Florida Gators head coach according to reports in ESPN and this comes as team lost in the Final Four in the NCAA tournament this past year.
The Knicks fired their entire coaching staff along with head coach Mike Woodson, while Rick Adelman decided to retire for the Timberwolves, leaving those jobs open, while many also think that Mike D'Antoni could be on the chopping block for the Los Angeles Lakers. According to Pro Basketball Talk, Donovan's name has come up again with an open coaching job, as he has been mentioned by Marc Stein as a candidate for the Timberwolves job along with Tom Izzo. Fred Hoiberg and Stan Van Gundy. Stein wrote on Twitter that the three names were all mentioned in connection with the job and the franchise is hoping that adding Donovan could convince Kevin Love to stay when his contract is up.
Donovan of course had his flirtation with the Orlando Magic back in 2007 and the team hired him as their head coach before he decided to go back to Florida. According to Pro Basketball Talk, that agreement with the Magic had a "no compete clause" that kept Donovan from coming back into the league, but clearly that is expired now and he technically could return if he wanted to. Donovan has been mentioned in rumors before and he has rebuffed them and he could do the same again in this situation after taking his Florida teams to multiple championships years ago and he is coming off of four straight Elite Eight appearances.
Donovan signed a contract with the Magic before deciding that he wanted to stay at Florida and the two sides worked out an agreement to get him out of it and the Gators took him back and this time around if he left, it likely would be for good. The Knicks job is open now that Mike Woodson was fired and the entire coaching staff was let go as well, allowing Phil Jackson to bring in his own coach to lead the team after he took over as the president of basketball operations. Jackson took over towards the end of the season and speculation ran rampant that Woodson would get fired after the Knicks missed the playoffs and now that it has played out, Steve Kerr has been mentioned as a top candidate for the job due to his connections to Jackson.
According to ESPN.com, Kerr is expecting to be contacted about the job opening and while he has not been a head coach before, he previously was general manager of the Suns. Kerr mentioned his interest in coaching in the NBA in a radio interview and he also said that he plans on talking with Jackson about the job, but that was before Woodson was fired. Kerr is a likely option along with John Calipari, who has been mentioned for the same reasons, but Kerr is much more likely since he is working for TNT as a broadcaster. The Knicks started the season 3-13 and never could quite pull out of that hole and that forced Carmelo Anthony to miss the playoffs for the first time in his career.
