Being friends with LeBron won’t save you from the pressure of the Lakers. Who will lead the legendary NBA club?
Nikita Biryukov June 17, 2024, 12:00 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
JJ Redick is the leading candidate for the Lakers’ head coaching job.
Coach: In any NBA club, this is a position that is subject to maximum pressure from various sides. The management, the fans and the players demand results from you. And in such famous teams as the Los Angeles Lakers, the criteria and increased attention increase several times. The Lakers, after a failed title campaign, fired Darwin Ham, who had worked for the team for two seasons. Why has a well-known specialist already rejected the Lakers and who is the main favorite for a position in a club with so much history?
Since 2011, when the legendary Phil Jackson left the Lakers, no coach has worked for the team for more than three seasons. Luke Walton and Frank Vogel are the latest to achieve this. But even the title of champion did not help Vogel retain his position any longer.
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Photo: “Championship”/Getty Images
The leading candidate for the Lakers’ vacant position was college basketball and NCAA star Dan Hurley. Under the 51-year-old’s leadership, the University of Connecticut won March Madness two years in a row: in 2023 and 2024. Only two coaches in NCAA history have done this before: Billy Donovan and Mike Krzyszewski. In total, the Lakers offered Hurley $70 million over six years, which would have made him the sixth highest-paid head coach in the NBA. But in the end Dan refused to work at the Los Angeles club. His Connecticut and Kentucky natives made him better offers. That’s how the Lakers lost their top candidate for the coaching job.
More on Hurley’s decision:
Why did an NCAA coach refuse to coach the Lakers and LeBron James?
Following Hurley’s resignation, the Lakers’ expanded roster reportedly includes JJ Redick, New Orleans Pelicans assistant coach James Borrego, Mike Malone’s Denver Nuggets assistant David Adelman, and Sam Cassell, who works in Joe Mazzulla’s staff on the Boston Celtics.” Previously, the Lakers considered Mike Budenholzer, but the Phoenix Suns were quicker and signed the 2021 champion to a contract.
According to NBA analysts and commentators, Borrego already has one foot in the Cleveland Cavaliers, the team that fired JB Bickerstaff. Therefore, the circle narrows even more. Well-known insider Mark Stein said on his podcast: “James Borrego is the leading candidate for the job in Cleveland.” “That could leave Redick as the only major candidate for the Lakers job that they have a clear shot at.”
In fact, Redick is now the leading candidate for the LAL coaching job. This has been clear to everyone for a long time. JJ is interested in this job and has talked about it more than once. He conducted an interview with the team, which went well. Additionally, legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyszewski, under whose direction he played in the NCAA, endorsed. We can’t forget LeBron James’ joint podcast with Redick. These two are clearly on excellent terms and we all know how important it is for the King to have his man in the coaching position.
JJ Redick
Photo: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
The longer the Lakers wait, the more clear they make it that they’re not sure Redick is the right guy for the job. It is also noteworthy that JJ did not work a single minute as an assistant to any coach in the NBA, a rather rare, if not unique, phenomenon in our time. Basically, everyone gains experience and only then runs a club. But Redick can skip that step and go straight to leading a great team like the Lakers. Maybe this plays a cruel joke on everyone: the Lakers, JJ himself, and even LeBron, who definitely put in a good word for his friend.
And maybe we’ll see a coach with an innovative vision for basketball who won’t let LeBron’s final years in the NBA be thrown into the trash. Only time will put everything in its place. We are waiting for the final decision of the Lakers, but it seems that the choice has already been made: the club is simply waiting for the end of the NBA final series between Boston and Dallas, since Redick works as an analyst on television and is simply finishing his contract.
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