How The Los Angeles Lakers Aced Their Head Coaching Search

It’s never a bad thing to keep your options open.

And that’s exactly what Rob Pelinka, Jeanie Buss and the Los Angeles Lakers did with this search to find their organization’s next head coach.

Initially, the Lakers interviewed all of the safe candidates. Popular names this cycle like Kenny Atkinson, James Borrego and Chris Quinn were initially named as top candidates to watch.

All while those interviews were taking place, corners of the internet were asking the obvious question:

“Why aren’t they interviewing JJ Redick?”

It seemed almost too obvious to at least bring Redick in for an interview. There were some loose reports of mutual interest, but nothing formal ever materialized. With the connection with LeBron James and the certified basketball acumen that’s displayed on their podcast, Redick seemed to check every box of an intriguing candidate for the Lakers. 

But then, a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski shocked the basketball world; the Lakers were all-in on Dan Hurley.

Hurley Watch took Laker Nation by storm. From tracking his trip to the West Coast to his return to the East Coast for a Billy Joel concert, all the way to monitoring Andrea Hurley’s body language an hour before Hurley would announce his decision at a highly anticipated practice.

It felt like the Lakers were all-in on Hurley, despite sort of lowballing him on the official contract offer.

After Hurley officially rejected the Lakers to stay at the University of Connecticut, Los Angeles did the sensible, obvious thing and brought Redick in for an interview.

On Thursday afternoon, Redick was officially named the next head coach of the Lakers.

There’s nothing wrong with keeping your options open, and the Lakers did just that. They always knew that they could fall back on Redick and appease their superstar, James, if their big swing on college basketball’s best coach didn’t pan out.

The Cavaliers and Detroit Pistons weren’t seriously in on Redick. Not to the level that the Lakers were. 

Everyone online thinks Redick is sure to fail. He doesn’t have any coaching experience, but his basketball knowledge is unquestionable. His relationship with James is, too. 

In this search, the Lakers played their hand perfectly. While publicly swinging and missing on college basketball’s biggest name was a little bit of a misstep, they recovered exactly how they likely planned.

If Redick happens to be a hit and pairs nicely with James on a new deal, this hire looks genius.