Kevin Ollie, Others to Interview for Pistons Coaching Job a Second Time

The Pistons are interviewing former UConn coach Kevin Ollie for their head-coaching vacancy a second time this week, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Along with Ollie, Pelicans assistant Jarron Collins and Bucks assistant Charles Lee have landed another round of interviews, Wojnarowski added.

This follows a report from James Edwards III of The Athletic a day earlier, which suggested all three of the aforementioned could be finalists.

The Pistons have also been linked to former Celtics coach Ime Udoka and former Raptors coach Nick Nurse, who was fired on Friday. Nurse replaced Dwane Casey in Toronto, and with Casey moving to the front office, the connection is there for the Pistons.

Heat assistant Chris Quinn also confirmed he has interviewed for the opening.

Ollie, 50, recently stepped down as head of coaching and player development in upstart league Overtime Elite. He coached at UConn from 2012-18, taking over for Jim Calhoun and leading the Huskies to the national championship in 2014.

He and the school had a fairly bitter breakup, though, with Ollie filing a grievance after being fired.

Prior to his coaching career, Ollie played in the NBA from 1997-2010 as a guard for 12 different teams. None of those teams were the Pistons.

Collins, 44, spent 10 years in the NBA as a center with the Jazz, Suns, Clippers and Trail Blazers from 2001-11. He was an assistant with Steve Kerr and the Warriors from 2014-21, working under Willie Green with the Pelicans since.

Lee, 38, has been an assistant under Mike Budenholzer since 2014, first with the Hawks and then with the Bucks, starting in 2018. Milwaukee won the championship in 2019.

Lee stepped into the lead assistant role this season, filling the post vacated by Darvin Ham, who left to become head coach of the Lakers before the season.