Nuggets assistant coach officially set to interview for Lakers job
By Ben Handler
We’ve been closely monitoring the Lakers' head coaching search since they fired Darvin Ham following their playoff loss to the Nuggets. We’ve seen several coaches removed from consideration as Jason Kidd agreed to an extension with the Mavericks and Ty Lue appears poised to do the same with the Clippers.
Other coaches that the Lakers showed interest in, Charles Lee and Mike Budenholzer have already taken other jobs with Lee going to the Hornets and Budenholzer going to the Suns.
Lakers coaching search heating up
They’ve been connected to a number of other candidates and on Wednesday, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported a list of current assistant coaches that the Lakers have secured permission to interview.
ESPN Sources: The Lakers have secured permission to interview several assistants for head coaching job, including New Orleans’ James Borrego, Denver’s David Adelman, Boston’s Sam Cassell and Minnesota’s Micah Nori, among others. https://t.co/4m4lIC98Pe
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 15, 2024
One of the announced candidates is David Adelman, current Nuggets assistant to Michael Malone. Adelman’s name has been thrown around as a potential candidate but this is the first official word that he is being interviewed.
The rest of the list of assistants to be interviewed for the Lakers job included James Borrego of the Pelicans, Sam Cassell of the Celtics, Micah Nori of the Timberwolves, and Chris Quinn of the Heat. Those are all veteran assistants and Borrego even has head coaching experience with the Hornets.
JJ Redick the leading candidate for Lakers job
This comes on the heels of a report from Jovan Buha and Shams Charania of The Athletic that stated the leader in the clubhouse for the job is actually JJ Redick. Redick was a long-time NBA player who now works as a broadcaster for ESPN.
JJ Redick, James Borrego and Sam Cassell have emerged as the initial leading head coach targets as the Lakers begin formal process this week, sources tell me and @jovanbuha.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 14, 2024
Details on early focuses of the Lakers' search at @TheAthletic: https://t.co/ShiecATRkG
Adding another layer to the Redick piece, he currently cohosts a podcast with Lakers superstar LeBron James. It’s unclear if this relationship with James would help or hinder Redick’s candidacy for the job, but the pre-existing connection is notable.
Selfishly, Nuggets fans should certainly want to see Michael Malone’s coaching staff stay together. They are one of the most well-coached teams in the league year in and year out and consistency has been a huge factor.
But at the same time, Adelman is absolutely worthy of getting a shot at being a head coach in this league. In a perfect world, that opportunity wouldn’t be with the rival Lakers, a team the Nuggets have eliminated from the playoffs in back-to-back seasons.