Seven weeks after firing Darvin Ham, the Los Angeles Lakers landed their next head coach on Thursday: JJ Redick, the 15-year NBA veteran turned podcaster and host, league sources with direct knowledge of the situation said The Athletics. According to sources briefed on the deal, Redick will sign a four-year contract worth approximately $8 million per season with the Lakers.
Behind the scenes, the Lakers had spent the past four weeks focusing on the 39-year-old Redick, enamored with his potential to be a coach for the present and the future, beyond just the next few seasons of LeBron James’ storied career. .
Redick had first interviewed with vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka for the Lakers head coaching job for about two hours the week of May 13 at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago. Redick then entered the Lakers facility on June 15 to meet again with Pelinka, as well as owners Jeanie, Joey and Jesse Buss, the remaining key stakeholders in the organization.
Multiple sources with direct knowledge of the meeting described Redick as “impressive” during his visit to Los Angeles, diving deep into his offensive and defensive philosophies and demonstrating a passion for the sport that foreshadowed a willingness to subject himself to the countless hours of work for the sport. modern head coach.
He explained his decision-making process when it comes to strategy, how analysis and empirical evidence would always guide his choices rather than preconceived ideas or outdated beliefs. Redick described a system formed around this roster, which focused on increasing Anthony Davis’ involvement, especially late in games, and easing James’ constant ball-handling duties by using him more off the ball. Keeping James, who turns 40 in December, fresh through the regular season and playoffs will be key.
For these Lakers, Redick’s ability to access his stars in James and Davis could be seamless because of the status he brings as a respected former player, but the way he unlocks the rest of the roster and coaches from the top down, remains crucial to his work. Austin Reaves will certainly be part of strong three-man attacks for the Lakers under Redick, who will be committed to developing players like Rui Hachimura, Max Christie and whoever the franchise drafts.
During his meetings with Pelinka and his visit to Lakers ownership, Redick showed promise, team sources said. But as with any rookie head coach, the real tests will come during the adversities of training camp and the season, managing player relations and controlling the locker room.
Redick has had a meteoric rise in the media since retiring in 2021. He ran his podcast network, started the “Mind the Game” show with James and served as a color commentator during the NBA Finals, all while looking for a head coaching job. Redick interviewed for the top coaching job with the Toronto Raptors in 2023 and the Charlotte Hornets this year. He has never coached professionally; his only coaching experience to date was with his son’s youth basketball team.
League sources briefed on Redick’s mentality say he is eager to make the leap to NBA head coach and embrace the challenges the chairman brings, believing it is the natural transition of his basketball life .
As Redick watched these NBA playoffs, both as a commentator and as a viewer, he envisioned how he would use a potential James/Davis-led roster. Just a few years after ending his playing career, Redick has his next basketball challenge.
The Lakers experienced some turbulence in their coaching search.
Much of the process involved Pelinka only meeting with candidates off-site or virtually, not inside Lakers headquarters. Following his conversation with Redick, Pelinka met with Pelicans associate head coach James Borrego in Los Angeles on May 20. Several candidates — Sam Cassell of Boston, Micah Nori of Minnesota, David Adelman of Denver and Chris Quinn of Miami — held virtual rallies.
On May 29, Borrego became the first candidate to enter the Lakers’ facility to meet Pelinka and the owner again.
In the days before and after Borrego’s second in-person visit, some Lakers stakeholders felt the focus of the head coaching search was on Redick. Given the lack of an experience-based hire after Mike Budenholzer went to the Suns and the Clippers retained Ty Lue long-term with a five-year contract extension, league sources briefed on the matter say Redick’s chances for the Lakers are increased. -ceiling candidate with the task of balancing profit and development and may coach on early mistakes.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, along came Dan Hurley. On June 6, ESPN reported that the coach of the back-to-back national champion UConn Huskies was the “target” of the Lakers’ search. Except for Jeanie Buss and Pelinka, the pursuit was kept behind closed doors within the organization.
Only Pelinka and Jeanie Buss met Hurley when he and his wife Andrea came to the Lakers facility on June 7.
Hurley left Los Angeles after being offered a six-year contract worth $70 million, according to league sources briefed on the matter. He returned to Connecticut to ponder his decision while the basketball world waited.
On June 10, he announced he was staying with the Huskies. Hurley’s new contract with UConn is expected to make him the highest-paid coach in college basketball — six years and more than $50 million, league sources said.
Although the Lakers moved quickly to offer Hurley a contract that would have made him one of the highest-paid coaches in the league, several people within the Lakers organization and beyond wondered about the real overall authenticity of the pursuit and whether the franchise had been. used by Hurley to get more money to stay in Connecticut. The Hurley situation was seen as a Hail Mary attempt by a team source directly involved in the search.
This much is clear, though: When it came to the Lakers’ final decision-maker, Jeanie Buss, team sources said she was highly motivated to make Hurley their next coach and was genuinely disappointed when the effort fell through.
Hurley himself told Dan Le Batard while making the media rounds that the Lakers’ interest began on June 5. He denied that he needed the power to get a raise at UConn on “The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz” when asked about it. He later said the school’s name, image and likeness and its employee payments still needed to be increased in connection with the Lakers’ lawsuit.
Thus, Hurley disappeared from view almost as quickly as he entered.
The Lakers squad regrouped on June 11, the day after Hurley’s announcement, and ultimately went all in on their first pick in Redick, according to team and league sources. After meeting with the Lakers on June 15, Redick spoke on the phone with Davis on Monday, a critical relationship in years to come, according to the sources briefed on the situation.
The decision to select Redick came as the Lakers, led by Pelinka, prioritized Davis’ voice in the process and made sure he understood the shared vision. Other key players supported the hiring, these sources said.
Los Angeles is confident Redick will be the long-term coaching solution that has eluded the franchise for more than a decade.
Since Phil Jackson’s departure in the summer of 2011, the Lakers have now had seven different head coaches (eight if we include Bernie Bickerstaff’s five-game interim stint in 2013). Winning doesn’t always equal job security in Los Angeles: Frank Vogel won a championship in 2020 and was fired two years later. Ham made the Western Conference finals in 2023 and was gone a season later.
But the 39-year-old Redick checks many of the boxes on the Lakers’ extensive checklist for their next coach. He’s been compared internally to a young Pat Riley as a coach who jumped from the TV booth to the coaching chair (although Riley spent two years as an assistant with the Lakers before taking the top job). Los Angeles believes he can be a version of Erik Spoelstra or Steve Kerr – a culture setter who can grow with the franchise for more than a decade. However, there have been far more former players and new head coaches who failed to live up to expectations than those who did, with the most recent examples including Steve Nash (Brooklyn), Derek Fisher (Knicks), Jason Kidd (Brooklyn) and Ham.
Multiple sources briefed on the matter say one person who became a respected unofficial resource for the Lakers during the process is legendary former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, whose deep knowledge of candidates like Redick and others provides a lens for the culture that the organization wants. and the characteristics of a potential staff around the next head coach. Krzyzewski’s history with the Lakers dates back to 2004, when Dr. Jerry Buss made a strong but unsuccessful offer to hire Coach K. Redick played for Krzyzewski at Duke from 2002 to 2006.
Assistant coaching candidates for Redick’s staff include former head coach and recent Trail Blazers assistant Scott Brooks, former Lakers guard Rajon Rondo, ex-Laker and current Dallas Mavericks assistant Jared Dudley and Cassell, according to sources in the competition.
The timing of Redick’s appointment is notable, as he will join Los Angeles’ roster schedule ahead of the NBA Draft on June 26-27 – the first day the Lakers can trade their three tradable picks (2024, ’29 and ’31). It also places a leader before James’s impending free agency. The 39-year-old superstar must decide by June 29 whether to exercise his $51.4 million player option for the 2024-2025 season. The Lakers are open to any contract structure that keeps James in Los Angeles, league sources said. The Athletics.
James’ decision, and how the Lakers reshape their roster around him and Davis, will determine the direction of Los Angeles next season. But Redick’s arrival is a major gamble on an unproven coach; a coach the team believes can bridge the gap to the next era of Lakers basketball.
(Top photo: Tyler Ross/NBAE via Getty Images)
