In this episode of the Draymond Green Show, former NBA guard and coach Sam Cassell sits down with host Draymond Green to reflect on his later‑career stint with the Boston Celtics, his role in mentoring point guard Rajon Rondo, and the mental pressures of playing on a championship‑contending team. Cassell recounts how he and veteran teammates pushed Rondo to understand the value of playing alongside Hall‑of‑Fame talent, and he later argues that Rondo deserves Hall‑of‑Fame consideration. The conversation shifts to Cassell’s coaching journey, contrasting his long‑term partnership with Doc Rivers—described as an “alpha dog” who blends authority with openness—with his current role under the much younger head coach Joe Mazzulla. Cassell praises Mazzulla’s factual, low‑drama approach and the collaborative locker‑room culture in Boston. He also shares his philosophy on player development, citing early work with Shea, Tyrese Maxey, and other young prospects, emphasizing the importance of giving reps, confidence, and tailored skill‑building. Interspersed is a brief promotional plug from Colin Cowherd for DraftKings’ UFC betting. Overall, the episode offers insider anecdotes, coaching insights, and Cassell’s perspective on talent evaluation and championship mindset.
Chapters
Welcome to the brand new Draymond Green Show YouTube channel. Hit subscribe so you don't miss out on any of our content. I wanna go towards the end of your career, 2008. You get a chance, you play with the Boston Celtics, you get a chance to win your third championship.
Mm-hmm.
What was it like being on that team? But also, and I wanna ask about this guy in particular because I haven't had the chance to sit down and talk basketball with him before. But I pray and I hope to, because I think he's one of the best basketball minds I've ever witnessed. What was it like being later in your career and being a vet to a young guy like Rajon Rondo with those Boston Celtics?
Oh man, my first practice I came after trade deadline. And my first practice just watching the kid, It's his second year. His leadership quality, man, his thought process of the game of basketball was unbelievable. Like, it's unbelievable. And Kevin, Paul, Ray, PJ Brown, myself, we was hard on him. We was very hard on him because I said, man, and he was like, he didn't want to hear a lot of things. But when I be personal, when I talked to him, he understood it. I said, listen, man. "Man, Yeah. you have a, you got an opportunity that a lot of players would never have. You playing with 3 first ballot Hall of Famers." 5. 3 first ballot Hall of Famers. I said, "Listen, man, when they leave, you gonna see what you miss. So right now, take the bullshit they giving you right now. Just take it, just take it. But when they leave, you gonna realize You lost. Fast forward, they gone to Brooklyn. Yeah. Now he's there by himself. He called me, "Old school." He called me old school. Him and Perk called me old school. "You was right, old school." Goddamn. I said, "It's different." Throwing the ball to Ray Allen, 3-ball. Throwing the ball to Paul, 3-ball. Making a pocket pass to KG at 15-foot jump shot. That's great. Now you got, I don't know who you had on his team, but he had them kind of guys on his team. And now his assist numbers are going down, his steals numbers going down, and he's not winning big as he won. And think about it, he won 55 games for like 4 straight years back then. 55 to 39 to 40.
You know how it is. It's a big drop off. It's a big drop off, champ.
You know how it is.
You know how that do.
'72, he win 60, 5, then you like, damn, we at 47 right now.
Yeah, 47. Guess what? One of the years obviously everybody was out, we won 15 games. In 2020.
And I don't care how many times, how much you win, that's a mental toll right there.
Oh, that's brutal.
That's driving to the game knowing when you winning 70, y'all won 70 plus games, you driving to the game, you know you gonna win.
So.
You know, music blasting, you know what I'm saying? When you ride to the game and you might, and you like, damn. "this can be hard." No, no, no.
Ain't no, "this can be hard." I know we about to lose.
You don't wanna think it, but you know, realistically you like, "Damn, that motherfucker." Tough tonight. They had a day off. We come off a back-to-back.
Start putting all that together.
We lost in double overtime.
Facts.
You know what I'm saying? All that takes a toll on your mind mentally, man. And, but back to Rondo, man, he was, he a bad boy. I think he should be a Hall of Famer, me personally.
Yeah, I agree.
Man, that's my guy. Doe my guy, man. Like he was tough, you know, the battles him and Doc had, man, it was just Doc was just trying to coach him. He was the thoroughbred and Doc was just trying to coach him. And sometimes Doc would throw him outta practice. I'm 38, 39 years old at this time. I know when he got thrown outta practice, now I gotta practice now.
You know what I'm saying? Yeah.
So I'm turning over Green, you gonna, you run the show. All right, shit, I'm riding this bike all night. I don't wanna be practicing. You know what I'm saying? Chill out. You know, one day I went to go get him. Come on, Doe, he come back, he come back. And one day Doc was like, "Don't go get him, let him go. I'm gonna coach you." They going back and forth, but they had a great relationship. 'Cause Doe was a young basketball player and he was gonna be good. I told everybody, "He's gonna be good, he's gonna be good." But he can't shoot. I said, "It don't matter, it don't matter." don't matter if you can't shoot, he gonna get you 12 points and 13 assists and 8 rebounds. He was a damn near triple double. Especially when the Big Three, when they left. Yeah. He was really doing his thing.
Absolutely.
He was two-time All-Star when they left.
Yep.
So he was doing his thing.
Absolutely. I wanna switch gears a little bit and you kind of just went into it a little bit, to your coaching career. And I wanna start, I wanna move backwards. I wanna start where you are today. As I said, not on camera, but congratulations. Thank you, man.
NBA champion again.
But I wanna ask you one in particular. You just won a coach, I mean, you just won a championship, Joe Mazzulla, the head coach. You've coached with Doc Rivers. Doc, Much older now.
Mm-hmm.
Joe, if I'm not mistaken, the youngest coach in the NBA. Yes. If not very close to. At the time, 36. Okay. What was it that you saw that you said, you know what, I feel like that's the place for me to go? Because you know, you've, you would never need a job, one of, if not the best assistant in the league. Opportunities to go everywhere, were with Philly, have been rolling with Doc, and now Doc's your guy. And then you decide to go over there, ends up being championship really fast. But I think my question is, what were some of the differences that you had to adjust to in being with Doc for so long, who's an older coach, established, been around.
Mm-hmm.
And then now you going to a young Joe Mazzulla where, Obviously you got respect for him as the head coach, but you also have been around way longer. Your knowledge of the NBA game goes way deep. What was that adjustment like and some of the differences and similarities in those two?
It was easy. Doc is an alpha dog. You know what I'm saying? Doc gonna do things the way he's gonna do 'em 'cause he has success. But Doc also take advice. You know, sometimes when I say, hey man, That's it. Chill out. And I'm here, chill out. Just like that. All right. They had enough, you know, you beat 'em up too much. But guys that I know for a fact that Doc has helped with their basketball career, Montrezl Harrell, best year ever.
Oh yeah.
Best year ever on Doc.
Yeah. Lou Will. Absolutely.
Best year ever with Doc. You know what I'm saying? DeAndre Jordan, Blake Griffin. These guys had their best careers with Doc, Paul Pierce, their best career with Doc. You know what I'm saying? When I got with Joe Mazzulla, Joe was so young and Joe didn't understand, Billy didn't have the knowledge of how to deal with the NBA ball player. Didn't have the knowledge. And the X's and O's, how to prepare his team to play, oh, he got that.
Mm-hmm.
He's got that, man. Our locker room, our coach's locker room is, I know it's like no other locker room. You know what I'm saying? We do things a little different in Boston. You know, we do things a little different as a coaching staff. Everyone has their opinion. Our coaching staff has their opinion. And, but it's Joe's ultimate decision and we roll with it. We roll with it. If I don't like it, I just don't like it. But I'm not gonna say, I told you so.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying? I mean, roll with it. We at least say it. On to next game. People just don't know Joe Mazzulla. They just don't know him.
That's right.
They just don't know him. Excellent coach. Great dude. Great person, man. Great. He allows me to be me. Doc allowed me to be me. You know what I'm saying? But Joe is so much younger than me and I just like, hey man, my whole thing with him is enjoy this process. Enjoy it, man. It's a hell of a ride. Enjoy it. We work hard, we do things different, we prepare hard, and we get the most outta our ball club. He does a great job getting the most outta his ball club. He's not a big yeller. He just states facts. He just states facts.
Mm-hmm.
Y'all want to win a championship? Let's go try to win a championship. This is what y'all said y'all wanted to do. Let's go win a championship. All right, but we can't be bullshitting. Facts. 10 games in 15 nights. Let's win all 10 of 'em. Let's try to win all 10 of 'em. Let's not use, no, take the coward way of, "Oh, we kind of tired." You know what I'm saying? Well, come on bench. Y'all wanna play? Everybody wanna play until it's time to play. Facts.
You know what I'm saying?
Facts. Everybody wanna play that, The left man on the team, he wanna play until it's time to play. Okay, it's your time now. And this year our guys stepped up. Our guys stepped up. We lost to y'all in—
'22.
We lost to y'all this season.
Oh yes.
Y'all came back.
Yeah.
We did the whole game. Y'all came back.
I was kicked out that game. I watched you on TV.
Okay. Y'all came back. Steph made some crazy shots. Big came back. And we came in as staff, said we had to say, we didn't motherfuck 'em. You know what I'm saying? Next day, go to Sacramento. We knew they was gonna be in trouble.
Mm-hmm.
So I gosh, we knew we gave one away. We gave a game away. We didn't give it away, y'all took it. As Joe Mazzulla like to put it, "No, you don't give games away." They took it. We ain't letting Sacramento take it from us. Went down there. JT didn't play and we beat the brakes off of them.
By 30.
We beat the brakes off of them. But it's how the game of basketball goes. It's so unpredictable, you know what I'm saying? Absolutely. But we put forth the effort and energy, man. But Draymond's been great with me. He's been, you know, he wants me to get a head coach job bad as in anyone, you know what I'm saying? He thinks I deserve it. But you know, when the time comes, I'll be ready. You know what I'm saying? I'm not giving up. I still love this. I love to see guys like Shea. I worked with Shea when he first came to the league. And Tyrese Maxey, when the whole NBA say he can't shoot. And I was like, what the fuck are they looking at? What are they looking at? A guy with that great rotation on his shot and can't shoot? Gotta be crazy.
Yeah.
Gotta be crazy. They just need the reps. Game reps, NBA reps. Yeah. His rookie year, we didn't give him game reps because Ben Simmons was playing All-Star, All-Pro basketball.
Yes, he was.
By far.
Yes, he was.
By far. So Maxie had to wait. But while he was waiting, he in the lab with one of the Kings. You know what I'm saying?
Yes, sir.
He in the lab with me every day. Every day. If you can ask him, I was on him every day. We gonna get better every day. So when it's time to come, you can ask him. When it's time to come, you can be ready. I told Maxie after his second year, I said, "You're gonna be a max ball player one day." He thought I was crazy. You think so, G? I said, "Trust me, I seen it." I told John Wall, I told Bradley Bill, I told Shea. When I told Shea SJ that, he was like, "Come on." He called me Pops. "Come on, Pops, seriously?" I said, "You're gonna be one of the baddest guards in the NBA 'cause we haven't seen a guard like that." Shawn Livingston was 6'7", but Shawn Livingston couldn't score like him. That's a fact.
Fact.
I had Shawn Livingston his second year in the NBA with the Clippers. But Shawn wasn't Shea. Shea has the ability to score from the 3-point line. He's a 3-level scorer, as I put it.
Absolutely.
3 points, mid-range, you know. I told him one time, he told me, he said, "Man, they don't want me to shoot the mid-range shot." Oklahoma. I was like, if you allow them people to take the best thing you do in your game away from you, you crazy. This is the best thing you got right now. Your 15-foot pull-up jump shot. You're 6'7" shooting against a 6'1" guy. All that guy can do is hope you miss. Yep. He ain't gonna affect it. Can't make you miss. And he's All-Pro 2 years, runnin' up for MVP. You know what I'm saying? So the sky's the limit for these guys. For that guy, man.
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