After the Los Angeles Lakers landed the seventh pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, the team has officially started searching for their next head coach after Mike D’Antoni’s resignation.
According to Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, general manager Mitch Kupchak met with Mike Dunleavy for the coaching job on Wednesday morning:
Mike Dunleavy had an interview with GM Mitch Kupchak for Lakers coaching job on Wednesday morning, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) May 21, 2014
For Dunleavy, this is the second time the Lakers have reached out to him regarding a vacant head coaching position. After the firing of Mike Brown five games into the 2012-13 season, the team considered Dunleavy and Phil Jackson before ultimately deciding to hire Mike D’Antoni.
While Dunleavy has not coached since the 2009-10 season, he has ties to the organization, leading the Lakers to the 1991 NBA Finals where they lost to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls.
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With numerous qualified coaches available, this is likely the start of a long list of interviews. Since D’Antoni’s resignation, many coaches have expressed interest in the position, but the Lakers ideally wanted to know what pick they landed at the NBA draft lottery first before moving forward. Unfortunately for the team, Kevin Ollie, Stan Van Gundy, and Steve Kerr are no longer available as they recently signed with different teams this past week.
After the Brown and D’Antoni hirings, there is a lot of pressure for the team to find a head coach that will provide stability as they look to rebuild themselves into championship contenders. Fortunately for the team, there are still well-qualified candidates available including Byron Scott, George Karl, and Jeff Van Gundy, among others.
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