JJ Redick’s odds of coaching Lakers, LeBron James gets major Shams Charania update
As the Los Angeles Lakers‘ 2023-24 season came to a close, the writing was already on the wall: Darvin Ham wouldn’t be making it to the 2024-25 season. So when Ham was fired shortly after LA’s five-game Playoff exit at the hands of the Denver Nuggets, it came as a surprise to no one, and thus began the Lakers search for the 29th head coach in franchise history… and the fourth since LeBron James joined the team in the summer of 2018.
It didn’t take long for former NBA sharpshooter and collegiate superstar JJ Redick to have his name thrown in the mix as a potential candidate for the job. Not only has Redick’s profile skyrocketed since retiring from the league and instantly becoming one of the brightest members of the NBA media in quite some time, but given his relationship/partnership with “Mind The Game” co-host LeBron James and his insistence that he’d someday like to coach in the NBA, it was easy to put the pieces together and figure out that if Redick interviewed for the job, he’d certainly become one of the frontrunners for the position.
This, it turns out, is exactly how things have played out. Not only was Redick among the first group of coaches who spoke with the Lakers about the job, but according to NBA insider Shams Charania, who joined the Pat McAfee Show to break down LA’s coaching search, he was the first who did so face-t0-face with the Lakers’ front office, who reportedly see Redick as a potential Pat Riley doppelgänger. And from the sounds of it, this meeting went incredibly well.
A JJ Redick to the Lakers timeline
As Shams Charania noted during his discussion with Pat McAfee on Friday afternoon, JJ Redick’s obligations with ESPN during both the Conference Finals and NBA Finals would keep him from officially taking over as the Lakers head coach until after the NBA Finals conclude sometime in the middle of June. That means that if Redick were the candidate who ultimately impressed the Lakers brass, his turnaround time between the NBA Finals and the NBA Draft — scheduled for June 26th and 27th — would be incredibly brief. Though, maybe the Lakers plans are as simple as Draft Bronny James.
What sort of system Redick would implement in LA remains a mystery, though one would assume that both LeBron James and Anthony Davis would have some sort of say. Redick clearly has a deep understanding and appreciation of the game of basketball, and while the Mind The Game podcast has taught us many valuable hoops lessons, one other lesson we’ve learned is that oftentimes, LeBron James and JJ Redick are aligned in their way of thinking about the game.
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