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Alabama basketball, Nate Oats hire another assistant coach with NBA experience

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Alabama basketball, Nate Oats hire another assistant coach with NBA experience

Alabama basketball has hired Brian Adams from the Detroit Pistons to be the third and final assistant on coach Nate Oats’ staff ahead of the 2024-25 season, The Tuscaloosa News has learned.

Adams joins the Crimson Tide staff alongside assistants Preston Murphy and Ryan Pannone. Adams replaces Austin Claunch, who was named the head coach at Texas-San Antonio in March. He is the second member of the Crimson Tide staff with an NBA coaching background; Pannone was an assistant for the New Orleans Pelicans.

Adams comes to Alabama with an extensive coaching history from the NBA. He joined the Pistons halfway through the 2023-24 season and prior to that served as coach of the Taipei Taishin Mars of the Taiwan T1 League in 2023.

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Before that, Adams was an assistant to longtime NBA coach Doc Rivers with the Los Angeles Clippers and the Philadelphia 76ers between 2014-23. He also has G League head coaching experience with the Clippers, serving the 2018-19 season as the head coach of the organization’s affiliate, the Agua Caliente Clippers.

Oats is preparing to enter his fifth season with Alabama. Fresh off the program’s first Final Four appearance, the Crimson Tide enters the 2024-25 season with a chance to win it all. It returns guard Mark Sears, who earned Second Team All-American honors in 2023 and led the team with 21.5 points per game, along with four additions from the transfer portal — Houston Mallette, Chris Youngblood, Aden Holloway and Clifford Omoruyi.

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