The Los Angeles Lakers’ hiring of an inexperienced JJ Redick as their next head coach surprised some around the NBA world.
It’s not that Redick wasn’t linked to the Lakers’ opening after they fired Darvin Ham. In fact, he was considered the front runner once Dan Hurley turned down Los Angeles’ massive offer in order to return to UConn.
Rather, it was all about Redick’s lack of experience. Outside of serving as a voluntary coach for the 4th Grade Boys Team at the Brooklyn Basketball Academy (that’s a thing), the 40-year-old Redick has absolutely no coaching experience.
Despite his 15-year career as an NBA player, the learning curve is going to be steep. That’s especially true given that he’ll be coaching the likes of LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
The ultimate goal here is to bring in experienced assistants to help Redick make the transition from podcasts to an NBA bench. Now, there seems to be good news on this front for Lakers fans.
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Los Angeles Lakers eyeing Jacque Vaughn and Dwane Casey for JJ Redick’s staff
NBA insider Marc Stein reports that these two former NBA head coaches are being pursued by the Lakers to serve as top assistants on Redick’s staff.
These would be two huge gets for the Lakers. We’re talking about long-time assistant and head coaches that would help Redick learn the nuances of manning the bench at this level.
Vaughn has served as an assistant or head coach since all the way back in 2010-11 with Gregg Popovich in San Antonio. He was the Orlando Magic head coach from 2012-15 and served in that same role with the Brooklyn Nets from 2022 before being fired 54 games into the 2023-24 campaign.
Casey has an even more impressive resume. His first stint as an assistant came with the then-Seattle Sonics all the way back in 1994. Redick wasn’t even 10 years old then.
After being the Minnesota Timberwolves’ head coach from 2005-07, he ultimately served in the same role for the Toronto Raptors for seven seasons. That included six trips to the playoffs. Most recently, he was the Detroit Pistons head coach from 2018-23.
For the Lakers, getting this type of experience on the bench behind Redick would be no small deal. Whether they can close the deal remains to be seen.
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