Getty JJ Redick.
The Los Angeles Lakers don’t appear to be in much of a rush to hire their next head coach but JJ Redick is the early favorite. In fact, he might already be lining up a coaching staff in the event that he is hired.
According to a May 27 Substack post from NBA insider Marc Stein, Boston Celtics assistant Sam Cassell, New Orleans Pelicans assistant James Borrego and Dallas Mavericks assistant Jared Dudley would all be targeted by Redick for his coaching staff. Cassell and Borrego have also been linked to the Lakers’ head coaching job while Dudley played three seasons with the team and was part of the championship-winning team in 2019-20.
It remains to be seen if Borrego or Cassell would want to join the coaching staff of the man they lost the job to. Redick, Cassell and Dudley are all former players so they’d have a player-heavy coaching staff. Borrego would be a smart addition considering he’s the only one who has been a head coach before. Redick was with the Orlando Magic while Borrego was an assistant there so there’s familiarity between the two.
If Redick could put this staff together, it’d be a very strong group. Cassell will likely be a head coach one day while Dudley was a beloved teammate during his time in Los Angeles. It’s easy to see LeBron James and Anthony Davis get excited about this potential coaching staff.
Los Angeles Lakers ‘Infatuated’ With JJ Redick?
It’s seeming more and more that Redick might be the favorite for the Lakers’ head coaching job. According to Shams Charania and Jovan Buha of The Athletic, the team thinks that he has big-time potential as a head coach.
“Leaguewide, Redick — a former player and media analyst — has garnered buzz for the position,” Charania and Buha wrote in a May 21 column. “The Lakers are infatuated with Redick’s potential, according to league sources, viewing him as a Pat Riley-like coaching prospect who could both help the franchise in the short term and lead it for years. Riley, a nine-year NBA veteran as a player, was a broadcaster for the Lakers from 1977 to 1979 before making the leap to assistant coach in 1979 and then eventually head coach in 1981.
“While Redick and Lakers star LeBron James co-host the podcast ‘Mind The Game,’ James has made it known that he is staying out of the team’s coaching search.”
Redick has never coached at the professional level and has only been out of the NBA since 2021. He’d be a risky candidate but there aren’t any surefire coaches who are still available. Barring any setbacks, it’s looking like Redick could be the next coach of the Lakers.
What’s the Holdup?
While the Lakers are looking at multiple candidates for the head coaching job, Redick has been the favorite for a while. Other teams with openings at head coach were much quicker to fill the role than the Lakers have been.
The delay could be due to the team’s desire to be thorough in their search. The Lakers are about to have their fourth head coach since adding James. Whoever they hire will likely be his last head coach and they can’t afford to get it wrong.