Seven weeks after firing Darvin Ham, the Los Angeles Lakers landed on their subsequent head coach on Thursday: JJ Redick, the 15-year NBA veteran turned podcaster and broadcaster, league sources with direct data of the scenario inform The Athletic. Redick is signing a four-year deal price within the neighborhood of $8 million per season with the Lakers, in response to sources briefed on the deal.
Behind the scenes, the Lakers had been zeroing in on the 39-year-old Redick for the previous 4 weeks, infatuated together with his potential to be a coach for the current and future, past simply the subsequent couple seasons of LeBron James’ legendary profession.
Redick had first interviewed with vp of basketball operations and common supervisor Rob Pelinka for the Lakers’ head teaching job for about two hours in the course of the week of Might 13 on the NBA Draft Mix in Chicago. Redick then entered the Lakers facility on June 15 to fulfill once more with Pelinka, in addition to homeowners Jeanie, Joey and Jesse Buss, the remaining key stakeholders within the group.
A number of sources with direct data of the assembly described Redick as “spectacular” throughout his go to to Los Angeles, diving deep into his offensive and defensive philosophies and displaying his ardour for the game that foreshadowed a willingness to submit himself to the numerous working hours for the trendy head coach.
He defined his decision-making course of in the case of technique, how the evaluation and empirical proof would all the time information his decisions somewhat than preconceived notions or outdated beliefs. Redick described a system molded round this roster, specializing in elevating Anthony Davis’ involvement, significantly late in video games, and assuaging the fixed ballhandling duties on James by using him extra off the ball. Protecting James, who turns 40 in December, recent down the stretch of the common season and into the playoffs will likely be crucial.
For these Lakers, Redick’s potential to entry his stars in James and Davis could possibly be seamless as a result of stature he could carry as a revered former participant, however how he unlocks the rest of the roster and coaches top-down stays essential to the job. Austin Reaves will certainly be a part of sturdy three-man assaults for the Lakers below Redick, who’ll be thrust into creating gamers reminiscent of Rui Hachimura, Max Christie and whomever the franchise drafts.
Throughout his conferences with Pelinka and his go to with Lakers possession, Redick confirmed promise, group sources mentioned. However as with all first-time head coach, the true assessments will come in the course of the adversity of coaching camp and the season, the administration of participant relationships and the management of the locker room.
Redick has had a meteoric media rise since retiring from his taking part in profession in 2021, working his podcast community, beginning the “Thoughts the Recreation” present with James and serving as a shade commentator in the course of the NBA Finals all whereas concurrently chasing a head teaching job. Redick interviewed for the Toronto Raptors’ high teaching job in 2023 and the Charlotte Hornets this yr. He has by no means coached professionally — his solely teaching expertise so far was together with his son’s youth basketball group.
League sources briefed on Redick’s mindset say he badly desires to make the bounce to NBA head coach and embrace the challenges the chair brings as he believes it’s the pure transition of his basketball life.
As Redick watched these NBA playoffs, each as a commentator and viewer, he envisioned how he would make the most of a possible James/Davis-led roster. Only a few years after ending his taking part in profession, Redick has his subsequent basketball problem.
The Lakers underwent some turbulence of their teaching search.
A lot of the method consisted of Pelinka assembly with candidates by himself off-site or just about, not inside Lakers headquarters. After his dialog with Redick, Pelinka met with Pelicans affiliate head coach James Borrego in Los Angeles on Might 20. A number of candidates — Boston’s Sam Cassell, Minnesota’s Micah Nori, Denver’s David Adelman and Miami’s Chris Quinn — performed digital conferences.
On Might 29, Borrego grew to become the primary candidate to enter the Lakers’ facility to fulfill once more with Pelinka and possession.
Within the days earlier than and after Borrego’s second in-person go to, some Lakers stakeholders believed the main focus of the pinnacle teaching search centered on Redick. Given the shortage of a championship experience-driven rent after Mike Budenholzer went to the Suns and the Clippers stored Ty Lue long-term on a five-year contract extension, league sources briefed on the matter say Redick’s possibilities grew for the Lakers, a high-ceiling candidate tasked to stability profitable and growth and allowed to educate via early errors.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, got here Dan Hurley. On June 6, ESPN reported that the coach of the back-to-back nationwide champion UConn Huskies was the “goal” of the Lakers’ search. Past Jeanie Buss and Pelinka, the pursuit was stored tight-lipped throughout the group.
Solely Pelinka and Jeanie Buss met with Hurley when he and his spouse, Andrea, got here to the Lakers facility on June 7.
Hurley left Los Angeles after being provided a six-year, $70 million contract, in response to league sources briefed on the matter. He returned residence to Connecticut to mull his determination whereas the basketball world waited.
On June 10, he introduced he was staying with the Huskies. Hurley’s new contract with UConn is anticipated to make him the highest-paid coach in faculty basketball — six years and upwards of $50 million, league sources mentioned.
Though the Lakers moved shortly to supply Hurley a contract that might have made him one of many highest-paid coaches within the league, a number of folks contained in the Lakers group and externally questioned in regards to the true general genuineness of the pursuit and whether or not the franchise had been utilized by Hurley to get extra money to remain at Connecticut. The Hurley scenario was seen by one group supply with direct involvement within the search as a Hail Mary try.
This a lot is evident, although: When it got here to the Lakers’ final decision-maker, Jeanie Buss, group sources mentioned she was extremely motivated to make Hurley their subsequent coach and was genuinely upset when the try fell brief.
Hurley himself advised Dan Le Batard, as he made the media rounds, that the Lakers’ curiosity began on June 5. He denied needing the leverage to get a elevate at UConn on “The Dan Le Batard Present with Stugotz” when requested about it, then later mentioned the college’s identify, picture and likeness collective and his staffing funds nonetheless wanted to be elevated going into the Lakers’ course of.
Similar to that, Hurley was out of the image nearly as shortly as he’d entered it.
The Lakers’ brass regrouped on June 11, the day after Hurley’s announcement, and eventually went all in on their best choice in Redick, in response to group and league sources. After assembly with the Lakers on June 15, Redick spoke on the cellphone with Davis on Monday, a crucial relationship within the years to return, the sources briefed on the scenario mentioned.
The choice to decide on Redick got here because the Lakers, led by Pelinka, prioritized Davis’ voice within the course of and ensured that he understood the shared imaginative and prescient. Different key gamers have been supportive of the hiring, these sources mentioned.
Los Angeles is assured that Redick would be the long-term teaching resolution that has eluded the franchise for over a decade.
Since Phil Jackson’s departure in the summertime of 2011, the Lakers have now had seven completely different head coaches (eight if counting Bernie Bickerstaff’s five-game interim tenure in 2013). Profitable hasn’t all the time equated to job safety in Los Angeles: Frank Vogel gained a championship in 2020 and was fired two years later. Ham made the Western Convention finals in 2023 and was gone one season later.
However the 39-year-old Redick checks most of the containers on the Lakers’ intensive guidelines for his or her subsequent coach. He’s drawn inside comparisons to a younger Pat Riley as a training prospect who jumped from taking part in to the printed sales space to the teaching chair (although Riley spent two years as a Lakers assistant earlier than taking the highest job). Los Angeles is assured he may be its model of Erik Spoelstra or Steve Kerr — a culture-setter who can develop with the franchise for over a decade. There have been way more former-player, first-time head coaches who failed to fulfill expectations than those that succeeded, although, with the latest examples together with Steve Nash (Brooklyn), Derek Fisher (Knicks), Jason Kidd (Brooklyn) and Ham.
A number of sources briefed on the matter mentioned one one who grew to become a revered unofficial useful resource for the Lakers in the course of the course of is famous former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, whose deep data of candidates, reminiscent of Redick and others, gives a lens into the tradition the group desires and the traits of a possible employees across the subsequent head coach. Krzyzewski’s historical past with the Lakers goes again to 2004 when Dr. Jerry Buss made a powerful but unsuccessful supply to rent Coach Ok. Redick performed for Krzyzewski at Duke from 2002 to 2006.
Assistant teaching candidates for Redick’s employees will embrace former head coach and up to date Path Blazers assistant Scott Brooks, former Lakers guard Rajon Rondo, ex-Laker and present Dallas Mavericks assistant Jared Dudley and Cassell, in response to league sources.
The timing of Redick’s rent is notable, as he’ll be a part of Los Angeles’ roster-planning forward of the NBA Draft on June 26-27 — the primary day the Lakers can commerce their three tradeable picks (2024, ’29 and ’31). It additionally places a pacesetter in place forward of James’ looming free company. The 39-year-old celebrity should resolve whether or not to train his $51.4 million participant choice for the 2024-25 season by June 29. The Lakers are open to any contract construction that may preserve James in Los Angeles, league sources advised The Athletic.
James’ determination, and the way the Lakers reshape their roster round him and Davis, will decide Los Angeles’ route subsequent season. However Redick’s arrival is a major guess on an unproven coach — one the group is assured can bridge the hole into the subsequent period of Lakers basketball.
(Prime picture: Tyler Ross / NBAE by way of Getty Photographs)
