Another report Lakers “zeroing in” on making J.J. Redick team’s next head coach

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Thursday night, J.J. Redick will be back at his day job (well, one of his day jobs) — part of the broadcast team for the NBA Finals between Dallas and Boston.

That may not be his day job for long. NBC Sports reported this week that the buzz around Redick becoming the Lakers’ next head coach was growing louder. Now Shams Charania of The Athletic takes it a step further, saying the Lakers are “zeroing in” on Redick as their next coach.

The Los Angeles Lakers are zeroing in on JJ Redick as the front-runner to be the franchise’s next head coach, league and media industry sources told The Athletic…

The Lakers’ search has been seriously focused on two candidates — Redick and Pelicans associate head coach James Borrego — over the last couple of weeks, league sources said.

The Lakers, for their part, continue to say they are working their way through the process and no decision has been made. If the Lakers are leaning toward Redick, the announcement would almost certainly not come until the NBA Finals are over.

Redick would be far from the first to jump from playing almost straight to coaching (in his case, with a little broadcasting in between). Jason Kidd did it and, after some rough stops, grew into the job and is now coaching the Nuggets in the NBA Finals. Derek Fisher made that leap in recent years as well.

The comparison Lakers and Redick backers like to make is Pat Riley, who legendary owner Jerry Buss plucked from the broadcast booth and made coach of the Lakers, and he coached them through the Showtime era. The Lakers want someone who can take over, help the team win now with LeBron and then transition to the Anthony Davis era to follow. However, there are serious differences between the Riley and Redick situations. First, Riley spent three years as a Lakers assistant coach before getting bumped up to the big chair. Second, when Riley took over the Lakers in 1981 Magic Johnson was 22 years old; if Redick takes over the Lakers job he will be invited to LeBron James’ 40th birthday party in December.

Redick’s basketball IQ is not in question, but are the Lakers making…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/another-report-lakers-zeroing-making-114853089.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-06-05 11:48:53

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