Two frontrunners for the Lakers head coaching role have emerged, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski as LA’s search ramps up this week.
The longtime insider spoke at length about two names that have been earmarked as the team searches for Darvin Ham’s replacement.
“A couple of names to watch in this search. James Borrego, the top assistant in New Orleans, they went from the [ranked] 21, 22 offense in the league last year to a top 10 offense,” Woj said. “…Borrego had a good run his head coach in Charlotte went from 23 to 33 to 43 wins. He was obviously with Gregg Popovich for a long time in San Antonio. He’ll be a candidate in this process.
“Another candidate is someone who hasn’t coached, and that’s our colleague here at ESPN, J.J Redick. He is certainly somebody that the Lakers are drilling down on, they’re making calls and trying to get a sense of what a head coach, head coach J.J. Redick would look like.”
Wojnarowski said current ESPN analyst JJ Redick is being studied by the team very closely.
“…one name that the Lakers have been drilling down on in their initial research here: JJ Redick, our colleague at ESPN. He is certainly somebody that the Lakers are intrigued with. They’ve been making a lot of calls to try to learn more about him. But expect this to be a wide ranging and lengthy search.”
Of course, there are plenty of other names being mentioned.
Other top NBA assistant coaches are being considered, The Athletic’s Jovan Buha recently reported.
These include Micah Nori (Minnesota), David Adelman (Denver), Sean Sweeney (Dallas), and Chris Quinn (Miami).
Former Warriors assistant and Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson is the current betting favorite to take out the Lakers top job.
No head coach at LA has lasted longer than three seasons since Phil Jackson was head coach from 1999-2011.
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