Lakers plan to surround JJ Redick with ‘elite’ coaching staff
Now that JJ Redick has been reportedly hired, the Lakers will assist him in building up a reportedly “elite” coaching staff.
The Lakers have been searching for a head coach for weeks and have finally filled the role with JJ Redick agreeing on a four-year deal to become the next coach. Redick’s appointment as coach is no surprise, as it was reported that the Lakers had been “zeroing in” on the Mind The Game podcaster since early June.
The Lakers didn’t just need to add a head coach as they fired the entire assistant coaching staff, including Phil Handy. As a result, they need to fill out the rest of the staff as soon as possible.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Lakers will look to build out a notable staff as well.
Pelinka became sold on Redick’s ability to connect with players and his basketball IQ and believes surrounding him with an elite coaching staff will help to shorten the learning curve into his first coaching job, sources said. https://t.co/xxqFXSrpJN
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 20, 2024
It was previously reported that the Lakers would be “more involved” in assistant coach hires and invest more financially into staff, so Woj’s reporting aligns with those reports.
Dan Woike of the LA Times also reported that the Lakers are looking specifically for assistants with previous head coaching experience.
“The Lakers are expected to add a former head coach to Redick’s staff as a lead assistant to offset his lack of experience, people with knowledge of staff recruitment who were not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Times.”
Scott Brooks and James Borrego are two names that have been previously associated with the Lakers as potential assistants and have head coaching experience.
Brooks was the head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder from 2008-15 and is currently an assistant for the Portland Trail Blazers. Borrego was the interim coach for the Orlando Magic in 2015, the head coach of the Charlotte Hornets from 2018-22 and is an assistant for the New Orleans Pelicans.
Borrego is also in the running for the Cleveland Cavaliers job, so his willingness to accept or even be available for an assistant position remains to be seen.
Considering previous head coaches for Redick’s staff makes sense, given this is his first NBA coaching job and he has zero professional coaching expertise.
With the Lakers opening up their wallets and being involved in building the staff, they should be able to give him experienced help that can ease his transition into this new job.
Things will likely move very quickly now that the Lakers have their top coach in place, as the NBA Draft is beginning on Jun. 26 and free agency negotiations start on Jun. 30.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.