JJ Redick will take over as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers for the first time this year, but he won’t be doing it alone.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Lakers are hiring two former head coaches as key assistants for Redick’s staff: Nate McMillan and Scott Brooks.
McMillan, 59, most recently served as head coach of the Atlanta Hawks and has a long resume. He has been in the NBA since 1986, when he was a second-round pick of the Seattle SuperSonics. His playing career ended in 1998, but he became an assistant with the SuperSonics in 1999 and has been a coach ever since. He was promoted to head coach in 2000 and stayed until 2005, when he left to become head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers. He also spent four years as head coach of the Indiana Pacers.
Brooks’ resume is nearly as long. He’s been an assistant on Chauncey Billups’ staff with the Blazers since 2021, but he spent 12 years as a head coach before that. He spent seven seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder, starting as interim head coach in 2008 (after joining them the season before as an assistant when they were the SuperSonics), then five seasons with the Washington Wizards, starting in 2016.
That’s an incredible amount of experience on Redick’s staff, and that’s just the beginning. There are more spots to fill. It remains to be seen whether the Lakers continue to surround Redick with an extreme amount of coaching experience, or whether they let Redick get a little more creative.
