Cleveland Charge Hire Chris Darnell As Head Coach

September 5, 2024

The Cleveland Charge of the G League have promoted Chris Darnell to head coach, the team announced in a press release.

Darnell will replace Mike Gerrity, who joined the Cavaliers’ staff of assistants under Kenny Atkinson.

“We thank Mike Gerrity for his leadership and successful two-year stretch as we are excited for this opportunity for Coach Darnell after all of his hard work and dedication to our organization over the last five seasons,” Charge general manager Liron Fanan said in a statement. “We know he is ready for the challenge to lead this team and put his own mark on our fantastic player development program.”

Darnell is a former player development coach with the Cavs, joining the Charge as assistant head coach before the 2021-22 season.

“In that position over the last three years, he spearheaded the team’s offensive and defensive game-planning strategy, opponent scouting and on-court application of analytical data,” the team wrote in the release. “The Charge had 11 player call-ups during Darnell’s three seasons as Associate Head Coach and was hands-on in development working with current Cavs players Sam Merrill, Emoni Bates, Dean Wade, Craig Porter Jr. and Pete Nance.”

Darnell has also spent one season with the Utah Jazz and six with the Phoenix Suns before that, “holding various roles from Basketball Ops Intern to Head Video Coordinator to Player Development Coach,” the Charge release read.

This news follows an announcement from the Cavs earlier regarding Atkinson’s coaching staff. We have that full story here.