I second the notion that Love, TT, JR have to be gone before Blatt is even considered.
Ettore Messina is an excellent candidate, actually surprised he didn't get hired. Stephens Silas is another great name who was a finalist for the Houston Rockets job and barely lost out to Mike D'Antoni.
It's clear to see Thibs was carried by Ron Adams and Adrian Griffin his entire career. Adrian Griffin got an assistant gig with Toronto but did so after turning a poor defensive personnel into a top 10 defense for his two years in OKC.
https://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2014/10/brad_stevens_raves_about_new_b.html
Darren Erman is another guy who has respect around the league but unfortunately has the recording incident. What a bizarre ending that was in Golden State.
Brad Stephens on Darren Erman:
“He’s really studied the game,” Stevens said Friday night prior to a scrimmage at the TD Garden. “And I think that adds just another good, young ambitious guy that’s really excited to help these guys get better. And he spends a lot of time, as do all of our assistants, with the individuals. That’s as big of a key right now as anything else.”
“Darren’s really a great defensive coach,” Stevens said. “He’s more than that. I think sometimes we pigeon-hole guys because he’s obviously specialized in that. But he is detail-oriented as detail-oriented gets. If your hands aren’t in the right place as you’re guarding in a pick-and-roll, or if your body positioning’s not at the right angle, or you don’t guard the post in the exact right way, he’ll stop it and he’ll correct it.”
Just not a fan of retreads but Frank Vogel did a great job in Indiana and got screwed by an awful GM in Orlando.