season. Mitchell was hired as an assistant coach by the New Jersey Nets on July 19, 2010. On December 6, 2011, Nets hired P.J. Carlesimo and Mario Elie as new assistant coaches and Mitchell was reassigned to a scouting position. On 2012, Sam Mitchell named head coach of USA select to 2012 William Jones Cup in Taiwan and his team finished bronze medal. On June 16, 2014, Mitchell was hired as an assistant coach by the Minnesota Timberwolves. On September 11, 2015, Mitchell became the Timberwolves' interim head coach after Flip Saunders had to take a leave of absence to receive treatment after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. On October 25, 2015, Saunders died at age 60. For the rest of the season, Mitchell became the official head coach, although he would still be treated as an interim coach. During his sole season coaching the Timberwolves, he would coach them to the fifth-worst record in the league with a 29–53 record. On April 13, 2016, Mitchell was relieved of his interim head coaching duties as the coach of the Timberwolves after the last game of the season, allowing them to look for a permanent coach. He would then be replaced by former Chicago Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau. On June 13, 2018, Mitchell was hired by the University of Memphis as assistant coach under Penny Hardaway. After one year as one of Memphis' assistant coaches, Sam Mitchell is no longer with the program. Head coaching record |- | align="left" |Toronto | align="left" | |82||33||49|||| align="center" |4th in Atlantic||—||—||—||— | align="center" |Missed Playoffs |- | align="left" |Toronto | align="left" | |82||27||55|||| align="center" |4th in Atlantic||—||—||—||— | align="center" |Missed Playoffs |- | align="left" |Toronto | align="left" | |82||47||35|||| align="center" |1st in Atlantic||6||2||4|| | align="center" |Lost in First Round |- | align="left" |Toronto | align="left" | |82||41||41|||| align="center" |2nd in Atlantic||5||1||4|| | align="center" |Lost in First Round |- | align="left" |Toronto | align="left" | |17||8||9|||| align="center" |(fired)||—||—||—||— | align="center" |— |- | align="left" |Minnesota | align="left" | |82||29||53|||| align="center" |5th in Northwest||—||—||—||— | align="center" |Missed Playoffs |-class="sortbottom" | align="left" |Career | ||427||185||242|||| ||11||3||8|| | align="center" |— Personal life Mitchell lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife, Dawn Session-Mitchell References External links Sam Mitchell coach profile at NBA.com NBA career stats as a player at Basketball-Reference NBA career stats as a coach at Basketball-Reference 1963 births Living people African-American basketball players American expatriate basketball