The Los Angeles Lakers are expected to take their time and do a thorough and extensive search to find their next head coach. A couple of potential names have already been taken off the market with Charles Lee and Mike Budenholzer taking over the Charlotte Hornets and Phoenix Suns jobs, respectively.
But there are plenty of worthy candidates still available including a number of top assistant coaches looking for their first opportunity to prove they can be a head coach in the NBA. And the Lakers apparently have their eye on a few.
According to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, the Lakers have interest in Minnesota Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori, Denver Nuggets assistant David Adelman, Dallas Mavericks assistant Sean Sweeney and Miami Heat assistant Chris Quinn:
“I’ve also seen some other names floated out that I can confirm the Lakers have some interest in, with those being Micah Nori, David Adelman, Sean Sweeney and Chris Quinn. To my knowledge the Lakers are not at the stage of interviewing coaches yet, but that will be happening soon. It’s a little tricky timing-wise because you have Adelman, Nori and Sweeney all in playoff series right now. You have JJ Redick who is on the top broadcast team at ESPN and is supposed to be calling the Finals, which would be about a week or so before the draft.
“So it’s gonna be interesting to see how the Lakers end up doing their interviews and just the timing of it and if they request certain guys while they’re still in the playoffs, how that process works with the teams. Especially with Nori in Minnesota with Chris Finch having this knee injury and Nori essentially co-coaching the team with him. It feels like his voice and presence is even more important than ever and I’m not sure how the Lakers are going to finagle getting an interview with him until the Timberwolves season is done and that could go into mid-June depending on what happens with this series with the Nuggets.”
With Darvin Ham having been a longtime assistant in his first head coaching opportunity, it could’ve been easy for the Lakers to have their eyes on those with more experience, and it has been reported that they would prefer someone who has already been a head coach. But it looks as if the Lakers are at least open to the idea of going the assistant route again and these are some of the top options.
Adelman and Nori are both highly-respected inside NBA circles with each being lead assistants on two of the top teams in the league. As Buha noted, Nori is currently taking on an even bigger role with Timberwolves coach Chris Finch injured and not being able to move, while Adelman has stepped in for Nuggets coach Michael Malone at different points as well.
Golden State Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson and ESPN analyst JJ Redick are known candidates as well, so the list of potential Lakers coaching candidates continues to grow. But the team will need to find the right person before the offseason really kicks into gear.
Byron Scott suggests LeBron James be next Lakers head coach
In the eyes of former Lakers player and coach Byron Scott, there should be another candidate being thrown out as the next potential Lakers head coach and that is none other than LeBron James himself.
In a recent TV appearance, Scott made the suggestion, saying that LeBron already has so much influence within the organization, why not make just make him the coach. It should be noted, however, that the NBA long ago abolished rules allowing for player-coaches.
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