The Los Angeles Lakers are intrigued by the idea of hiring former NBA guard and ESPN analyst JJ Redick to fill their head coach vacancy despite his lack of coaching experience.
After getting eliminated by the Denver Nuggets in a gentleman’s sweep in the opening round, the Lakers bid farewell to former coach Darvin Ham, thus leaving them in search of candidates to run the board next season.
On Saturday, ESPN’s NBA insider, Adrian Wojnarowski, said his colleague has caught the attention of the Lakers front office as their search continues.
‘Rob Pelinka [and] the Lakers’ front office – they’ll be in Chicago for the league’s draft combine,’ Wojnarowski said on NBA Countdown. ‘You expect them to start calling for permission to talk to coaches around the league, assistants.
‘But one name that the Lakers have been drilling down on in their initial research here: JJ Redick, our colleague at ESPN,’ Wojnarowski continued. ‘He is certainly somebody that the Lakers are intrigued with. They’ve been making a lot of calls to try to learn more about him. But expect this to be a wide-ranging and lengthy search.’
Aside from not having any coaching experience, Redick is not too far removed from his days as a player.
Before retiring three years ago, Redick started his 15-year NBA career with the Magic after getting drafted out of Duke with the 11th overall pick in 2006.
After seven years in Orlando, the sharpshooter made stints with the Clippers, 76ers, and Pelicans before calling it a career with the Mavericks – where he played for a season. Redick was a Top-20 candidate for Most Improved Player in 2010 and Sixth Man of the Year in 2011 and 2013.
Over his career, Redick averaged 12.8 points on 44.7 percent shooting.
Post-retirement, Redick showed much of his basketball IQ as an analyst for ESPN. He also dove into podcasting, which includes his new Mind The Game podcast with Lakers star LeBron James.
Ham was dismissed after two seasons at the helm. The purple and gold have struggled to find a long-term coach, as none have lasted longer than three seasons since Phil Jackson held the position from 1999-2011 and brought two titles to the City of Angels.
Besides Redick, the Lakers are reportedly considering Kenny Atkinson, David Adelman, James Borrego, and Micah Nori for the job.
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