The interview portion of the Lakers‘ head coaching search is underway, according to Jovan Buha and Shams Charania of The Athletic, who report that the team has had formal meetings in recent days with ESPN analyst J.J. Redick, Pelicans assistant James Borrego, and Celtics assistant Sam Cassell.
The Lakers also intend to meet with Micah Nori (Timberwolves assistant), David Adelman (Nuggets assistant), and Chris Quinn (Heat assistant), per Buha and Charania.
Of those three, Nori is the only one whose team’s season isn’t over. He has also taken on a larger role on Minnesota’s bench during the postseason due to a knee procedure that has rendered Wolves head coach Chris Finch immobile during games, so scheduling an interview with him will be a little trickier than lining up meetings with Adelman and Quinn.
The Athletic previously referred to Redick, Borrego, and Cassell as the Lakers’ “initial leading targets” in their head coaching search. Since then, multiple reports have indicated that people around the NBA view Redick as the frontrunner for the job.
League sources tell Buha and Charania that the Lakers are “infatuated” with Redick’s potential as a head coach, despite his lack of experience. They view him as a “Pat Riley-like coaching prospect” who could thrive both in the short and long-term, The Athletic’s duo adds.
Redick co-hosts a podcast with Lakers star LeBron James, resulting in speculation that his relationship with LeBron is driving his candidacy in Los Angeles. However, James’ agent Rich Paul has insisted that’s not the case, as we relayed this morning. Redick also reportedly received consideration for the Hornets’ coaching job earlier this spring and interviewed with the Raptors in 2023.
Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson and Mavericks assistant Sean Sweeney have also been mentioned as possible Lakers candidates in recent weeks, but neither was mentioned in The Athletic’s latest report.
There was another young coaching candidate with a lot of potential and no head coaching experience. That was Erik Spolstra. Lebron tried to get him fired and Pat to coach again until Pat told him Erik would stay coach whether he likes it or not. Whether or not JJ is the next great young coach he won’t achieve anything with the Lakers. Not with a superstar who demands his coaches take all the blame for losses and not with a GM who will fire a coach every year over taking responsibility for roster construction.
Yep.
I hope the Lakers hire JJ. That will mean the end of the Lakers as a contender, if they even were contenders the past 3 years and the end of Lebron.
IF the Lakers are smart they move on from Lebron and start building around AD.
Lebron wants his retirement tour/playing with Bronny tour. Lakers can shuffle the deck chairs all they want, but to get another player who can help, they will have to sacrifice their future even more. Laker picks will be quite valuable in the future.
Play in contenders. Possibly get another cake walk in the rigged season tournament. If in trouble I’m sure the three blind mice could help them advance to a tourney chip.
LAL are “infatuated” with Redick? LOL. That assessment could only have come from Jeanie. She’s spent a lifetime around pompus, self-absorbed men, and appears to have a fondness for them. If she thinks Redick is another Pat Riley, I wouldn’t quesiton her. Maybe just confirm she means it in a coaching sense.