Nate Oats completes coaching staff by hiring Detroit Pistons assistant
Nate Oats has reportedly rounded out his coaching staff for the 2024-25 season.
Alabama is hiring Brian Adams of the Detroit Pistons as an assistant coach on Oats’ staff, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The hire completes the Crimson Tide’s assistant coaching staff, which lost Austin Claunch this offseason to a head coaching job at Texas at San Antonio.
Adams is a veteran in the coaching world, having spent time in college, the NBA and overseas. He joined the Pistons midway through last season after nearly a decade in the NBA. Adams was an assistant under Doc Rivers for the Philadelphia 76ers from 2020-23 after working in the Clippers organization from 2014-20. He was an assistant for the then-Agua Caliente Clippers – Los Angeles’ G League team – before becoming the head coach in 2018.
Adams’ most recent stop before a brief stint in Detroit was overseas as the head coach of the Taipei Taishin Mars. It’s been a while, but he also has experience at the collegiate level, having worked at Harvard from 2011-13 and Marist from 2013-14 – both as an assistant.
Adams joins Ryan Pannone and Preston Murphy on Oats’ staff at Alabama. Both Adams and Pannone come from NBA backgrounds and are the second and third coaches Oats hired from the NBA ranks since he took over the Crimson Tide basketball program in March of 2019.
“I hired NBA guys,” Oats told Andy Katz last month. “I’m gonna have three guys that I hired out of the NBA on staff this coming year. Charlie Henry came out of the NBA, and when we got here, we put an NBA system in. Coach Pannone’s done a great job.
“Guys wanna make it to the NBA. We’re running, I feel like, a system closer to the NBA than anybody in college basketball’s playing, and we’re showing we can win with it, too.”
With the news of the hire, it would make sense that Pannone will spearhead Alabama’s offense while Adams focuses on the defensive end and Murphy continues to be an elite recruiter. That can change, however, as we saw Oats shake up responsibilities last year.
*** This story will be updated.
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