After Nate Oats lost all three of his assistant coaches to head-coaching jobs elsewhere this offseason, Alabama is targeting a current NBA assistant to fill one of its open spots.

Alabama is in discussions with New Orleans Pelicans assistant coach Ryan Pannone to join the staff in Tuscaloosa, a source confirmed Thursday. The Tuscaloosa News first reported the contact.

Pannone, 38, was previously the inaugural coach of the Pelicans’ G-League affiliate, the Birmingham Squadron, when that team relocated from Erie, Pennsylvania in 2021.

“Ryan’s actually a really sharp coach,” Oats said in August 2021 about Pannone. “Good Xs and Os guy with a good mind. He came down and met with some of our assistants. I was out of town. But I’m interested to watch them play. I want to go and watch them practice a bit and just kind of pick his brain, too.”

Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne tweeted a photo Wednesday evening of him and Oats attending the Pelicans’ NBA playoff play-in game in New Orleans.

Pannone is a Florida native who attended South Florida and later coached high school and AAU basketball in the Tampa area. He joined Wallace State as an assistant in 2011, and later spent time coaching in the NBA summer league, China, South Korea, Germany, Israel and Slovakia. He became Erie’s head coach in the G-League in 2019.

Pannone’s background could help replace Charlie Henry, one of Oats’ former high school assistants who joined his Alabama staff in 2019 after coaching in the G-League. After Henry became Georgia Southern’s head coach earlier last month, Oats praised Henry as “one of the sharpest basketball minds out there.”

Alabama has also reportedly targeted Nicholls State head coach Austin Claunch for another of its three openings. Claunch is a former Clemson and George Mason assistant who interviewed for the University at Buffalo’s head-coaching vacancy last month, the job Oats once held.

In addition to Henry, Alabama assistant Bryan Hodgson became Arkansas State’s head coach and Antoine Pettway last week was named Kennesaw State’s head coach.

Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.