J.J. Redick has been talking to the Lakers about their head coaching job since Darvin Ham was fired and the search began, although how to classify those conversations depends upon who is doing the spinning.
Two things are clear as of Saturday: 1) Redick has had his official, formal interview for the job, which took place Saturday, according to Dan Woike at the Los Angeles Times; 2) We could find out if this is going to happen as early as Tuesday, but it won’t happen until the NBA Finals end.
Outside of a dalliance with UConn coach Dan Hurley that ended with him staying in Connecticut, Redick has been the most mentioned name in league circles to get the job — executives from other teams expected him to get it, and plenty of people in the Lakers organization thought it would happen as well. For all the Lakers’ words about wanting a coach who can develop players and grow a program and a culture to help them compete more steadily in the long term, the Lakers organization has always been about superstars and keeping them happy. Redick is LeBron James’ podcast partner, and this hiring would not have gotten this close without him and Anthony Davis being good with it.
This would be a real roll of the dice by the Lakers, a high-risk/high-reward hire — nobody is questioning Redick’s knowledge of the game, he was a 15-year NBA player who developed into one of the most coveted role players and 3-point shooters in the league, but he’s never coached before at any high level of the sport. There are people close to Redick asking him if he really wants the job and to give up a comfortable broadcast and podcast career, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said on the network’s Get Up (hat tip Real GM).
“And that’s one of the reasons why I think there’s people in his life, in fact, I know there’s people in his life, who have said ‘Are you sure this is the opportunity you want? That this is what you want to leave for? Because this is such a challenging job.'”
It is a challenging job. There is not much stability within the Lakers organization and no coach since Phil Jackson has lasted more than three seasons, including Frank Vogel who coached them to a championship. The Lakers have finished seventh or worse in the West 11 out of the last 12 years (the exception was the 2020 Covid season, where they won the title), and in a deep Western Conference, do the Lakers have the talent to be better than that? Does Redick want to jump to a team that this summer will consider trading multiple players and first-round picks to land Trae Young (whether they make that move, or any star-turn move, remains to be seen; Los Angeles may simply try to improve the role players around LeBron and Davis).
Assuming Boston can finish off Dallas on Monday night and end the NBA Finals, we may find out very soon.
