Getty Los Angeles Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka sits with head coach Frank Vogel.
The Los Angeles Lakers continue to fill out their coaching staff around Frank Vogel with former head coaches. After news broke of Jason Kidd becoming the highest paid assistant coach in the NBA, the Lakers decided to bring on the longtime Memphis Grizzlies coach, Lionel Hollins.
Most recently Hollins spent the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons coaching the Brooklyn Nets, yet hasn’t been a member of any team’s coaching staff since. Hollins’ Nets teams didn’t fare too well as he only coached in 37 games his final season before the team decided to part ways with the veteran play-caller.
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Lakers Hire Grizzlies’ Winningest All-Time Coach, Lionel Hollins, to Staff
Despite only coaching in Memphis/Vancouver for a total of seven seasons (one of which he only coached in four games), Hollins is the Grizzlies all-time winningest coach. His last season in Memphis, the Grizzlies won 56 games (a career-best for Hollins) but unfortunately were bounced from the playoffs early once again. In total, Hollins racked up 214 wins with a combination of the Vancouver and Memphis Grizzlies.
The Lakers still have a few more spots to fill out and it should be interesting to see if they continue the trend of targeting former head coaches who are out of work. While many teams tend to bring on young coaches and groom them within their system, the Lakers don’t necessarily have an established system and bringing in a number of high-quality basketball minds might be their way of attempting to piece one together.
Today in the Los Angeles Lakers
The Lakers have come out this week making some noise, especially this morning. The biggest news of the day is that the Los Angeles Times’ Bill Plaschke went on air to say how he had sources tell him LeBron would be asking for a trade if the Lakers strike out in free agency. While James himself has neither confirmed nor denied the rumors, from a logical standpoint it does make sense. James came to LA to win in his final years and if the franchise proves incapable of putting a winner around him, he may need to ride off into the sunset wearing a different set of colors.
However, James has been extremely patient throughout this offseason so far and this stance would go against everything he has preached so far. James has been the calm in the eye of the storm and has helped maintain extremely strong relationships with all the members of the Lakers young core. For years LeBron caught flak for not leading by example, however, the narrative this offseason seems to be completely the opposite.