The Los Angeles Lakers have agreed to a four-year contract with JJ Redick to make him the franchise’s next head coach, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!This hiring comes seven weeks after L.A. fired Darvin Ham and a little more than a week after Connecticut coach Dan Hurley turned down a reported six-year, $70 million deal from the Lakers.
The Athletic reports that Redick’s deal is worth in “the neighborhood of $8 million per season” and that “the Lakers had been zeroing in on the 39-year-old Redick for the past four weeks, infatuated with his potential to be a coach for the present and future, beyond just the next couple seasons of LeBron James’ legendary career.”
Wojnarowski reports that Redick was offered the job Thursday morning by Lakers vice president and general manager Rob Pelinka.
“Pelinka became sold on Redick’s ability to connect with players and his basketball IQ and believes surrounding him with an elite coaching staff will help to shorten his learning curve into his first coaching job, sources said.”
Pelinka became sold on Redick’s ability to connect with players and his basketball IQ and believes surrounding him with an elite coaching staff will help to shorten the learning curve into his first coaching job, sources said. https://t.co/xxqFXSrpJN
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 20, 2024
Redick, a 15-year NBA veteran and ESPN NBA analyst who just called the NBA Finals, lands his first NBA coaching job on arguably the biggest stage in basketball. Redick hosts and co-hosts several Podcasts, including the “Mind the Game” Podcast with James, who has a $51.4 player option with the Lakers he has to decide whether or not to opt into by June 29.
Los Angeles is really high on Redick to say the least, according to The Athletic:
“The 39-year-old Redick checks many of the boxes on the Lakers’ extensive checklist for their next coach. He’s drawn internal comparisons to a young Pat Riley as a coaching prospect who jumped from playing to the broadcast booth to the coaching chair. Los Angeles is confident he can be their version of Erik Spoelstra or Steve Kerr – a culture-setter who can grow with the franchise for over a decade. There have been far more former-player, first-time head coaches who failed to meet expectations than those who succeeded, though, with the most recent examples including Steve Nash (Brooklyn), Derek Fisher (Knicks), Jason Kidd (Brooklyn) and Ham.”
The Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons are the two teams remaining with vacant head coaching positions.
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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau
