Assistant Coach Search: Who Now?

We're a poorly run franchise that was lucky enough to land LeBron based on where we're based/marketing. Coaches coming and going, horrible seasons left and right. If it wasn't for the Bubble team we'd be in the absolute abyss.

 

I'm more concerned and intrigued about his assistants than him getting hired there.

Is Ham about to get snatched up? A bidding war between Charlotte and Phoenix for his services as an assistant would be hilarious.

 

100% agreed. Now that Charlotte has hired Lee, I believe the only vacancy besides us (assuming Bud goes to Phoenix) is Washington. We can afford to wait this out, Atkinson and Reddick aren’t going to get impatient and go to Washington instead. We may not even have to wait until the end of the playoffs, if Nuggets/Wolves is a sweep or 5 games there would be days off to interview Nori and Adelman would be free.

 

i get the sentiment, but i'd also say that atkinson was nori and adelman before they were. not saying i know anything of any of the three's future prospects, but it wouldn't shock me if atkinson did better with his second chance than those guys do with their first. nor would the opposite.

 

On Irwin's pod today, Larsuel said it was his understanding JJ was offered the Charlotte job and had a contract sitting there and had been his for awhile (according to a very reliable source). He doesn't know if there were offers out to both Lee and JJ and Lee jumped first OR if JJ turned them down.



Come on down JJ... you're the next HC of the Los Angeles Lakers

 

at this point i'm going to be surprised if he's not. it's so on-brand, in good and bad ways.

 

Frank part Deaux?

 

I still think Atkinson has a good shot,

but if it is Reddick and the Lakers already have committed silently to him internally, these coaching candidates are just interviewing for assistant coaching roles.

 

I mean seriously we always joke about LeBron scouting players in HS school or Jr High but haven’t we seen posted in the past week he actually did make comments about JJ someday being coach material when he was in college? For whatever reasons he came to that observation? He was right about AR putting him on the actual roster rather than spending it as a 2-way from seeing him in the few days Vegas mini camp he put on. He’s had a lot of brain storming strategy and Xs and Os and taking a measure of him a lot further. I’d definitely be down with him literally being a player coach if it was allowed. This would allow all that input while not having to do the heavy lifting, same as a really good PG allows him to do other things if there’s enough talent and execution there. If he’s right, along with anyone else in the NBA that feels this way …. IMO, for his last go round this is lower risk (if what James truly believes) and higher reward than riskier for the locker room to again go a different direction and again it becomes obvious to him the guy the FO picked just isn’t “That Guy”. With JJ nothing but collaboration and support vs having to again with the hourglass almost empty rely on someone else’s vision. He knows his reputation and the chance he’s taking. I’d be excited to see it all play out, honestly, if they did and then assembled a super staff at least as good as what Frank had the first year we won the chip, including hopefully Rondo.

 

Super Like for letting your ba***s drop.

Would be entertaining for sure, and I'm here for it.

@sirronstuff would even like it because JJ is white.

 

Here's where my fascination lies if this plays out with JJ getting the gig:

We've never seen a team's best player, who's also near/at the top any GOAT list, sit down with a coaching candidate, interview them and see if they're up to snuff for 7 episodes and counting--each are roughly an hour, there's edits and cuts, so they've spent at least 9-10 hours across from one another so far. It's a wild experiment.

It's also a hell of an interview tool for JJ too. He's sitting there going back and forth with Bron going over basketball plays, arguably the greatest mind of any active player. Drawing up plays on a clipboard or a piece of paper and then we see a clip of an example as they break it down. This isn't the hoops pod with Gil where you lose brain cells the longer the clip plays. No. This is hoop junkie s***, all the way in the weeds level material. So you're able to see his memory recall (pretty impressive), how he'd run this or react to that or hear his thoughts on how he'd run an action, how he liked an action ran as a player, spacing, 3 ball, defense, evolution of the game, players/teams of past and present. AND how one of the GOATS thinks about each of JJ's comments.

Team interviews won't be long, because they know a good bit about his Xs & Os going into it. Just run the tape. Mainly just a vibe check and see what he'd do with your roster. How he'd incorporate a type of player you're looking at acquiring over the off-season, etc.

Something like that has never been done and probably won't be done again. The number of situations to line up for this to even be a possibility. There's not a CVS receipt sized list of former players who are great with Xs&Os and who are comfortable in front of a camera carrying on hour long, long form conversations. Fewer who are angling for their first HC gig. Even fewer who could get a Mt Rushmore player as a guest, much less co-host the pod with them. Even fewer when there's an opening on said player's team for the HC position.

He isn't my first pick. That's Lue, who's not available. But he's not my last pick either. We're already down 4 candidates/potential candidates -- Lue, Kidd, Bud, and Lee (couple not officially yet). I don't think there's much difference in the margin when looking at the available pool. From a popcorn eating, sit back and see what happens for better/worse, he's the clear leader. What else is clear is he knows hoops. Watch the pod and that much is abundantly clear. Strictly from an Xs and Os perspective, maybe better than the past 7 people who sat in that seat at the time of them being hired (Brown was an idiot with us, I think he improved and learned a lot under Kerr). He doesn't know coaching, not at this level. JJ is in year two of coaching 2nd/3rd graders, it's a bit different at the pro level. BUT as I've said with whoever we hire, I want a full assistant coach staff. Guys who are overqualified and overpaid. I want to look at that bench and ask, how did we get _____. I want the national media to think that the position is beneath them. To me, based on our past coaching hires, that might be the difference in sinking and swimming.

If JJ is the guy. You've got Bron and you've got Xs&Os, that's as good of a starting point from as you can hope for. Then your job is to get assistants with prior HC experience and probably a defensive assistant.

 

hope phoenix hires budenholzer because he'd be ham part 2

 

My thoughts on potentially hiring JJ are that there's obviously going to be a lot of unknowns there. The NBA media/twitter people would have a field day laughing at us for hiring him. However, I'm sure they didn't think Vogel would do anything given how he was a second choice and forced to have Kidd as an assistant. Unfortunately, there's no guarantees for coaches nowadays unlike the times we hired Phil. Yes hiring good assistants w/ JJ is important, but the FO needs to live up to their end of the bargain by getting us good players that can fix our deficiencies (a good strong physical 5 that can complement AD, etc.). We can blame Lebron for Westbrook but the FO/ownership isn't innocent in terms getting anything of value in free agency, such as signing duds like Nunn. This has given us less reliable pieces to complement our team.

We can talk ad nauseum about what JJ would do for our team, but ultimately, we have 0 idea on how he wants to run an offense or defense. The main thing is respect and LBJ respects him enough to listen to him. That's one thing that at least will be fine is that there will be buy in from our team about the coach.

 

Again... can't possibly fathom JJ knowing his X's and O's after the AD fiasco. Or, he is 'Antony and we are doomed either way.

 

I’ll say again and not lightly, with our backs against the wall in this hire and the gamble that it is looking against the odds trying to find potentially the next decade or longer coach for the Lakers, that if we want to always look back and wish we still had the great owner and decision maker …. and gambler when the reward was potentially great that Jerry Buss himself was …. if his star player was convinced for a JJ Reddick hire over a retread HC or an ALSO untested but somewhat known assistant coach, this would be exactly an OG Doc Buss move to give LeBron his chance to pick a great one outside the box just like he did West and Magic to take the chance on Riley. Strictly on the basis of the competitor he was. Knowing that it was Magic’s vision for the way the team SHOULD be playing that would shape the offense. JJ seems not in the same zip code “more” prepared and polished for the sophistication of the Xs and Os and dealing with the LA media than Pat was right off his own playing days, and being Robin when Batman let him speak during the broadcasts. Different times for sure and things are infinitely more sophisticated with the importance of analytics and SOTA thinking with regards to winning NBA basketball 44 years later … but THAT “seems” to be exactly what LeBron sees in Reddick’s potential. And coincidence of all …. ALSO right from behind the mic doing color commentary for ESPN/ABC.