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The Lakers finally landed some assistant coaches with head coaching experience, bringing in Nate McMillan and Scott Brooks.
The Lakers have finally begun adding coaches to their bench. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports that Nate McMillain and Scott Brooks will be joining JJ Redick’s staff as top assistants.
ESPN Sources: The Los Angeles Lakers are hiring Nate McMillan and Scott Brooks as top assistant coaches on JJ Redick’s new staff. Redick gets two longtime head coaches with a combined 1,189 victories to surround him. -@wojespn
Redick and vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka have been “completely aligned” with adding former head coaches to the staff and these acquisitions accomplish that.
Brooks has been rumored as a potential assistant coach option for the Lakers since early June and it appears that the Lakers were able to land one of their top targets.
With the addition of Brooks, the Lakers add plenty of coaching experience to Redick’s bench.
He was the head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder from 2008-15 and the Washington Wizards from 2016-21. He was previously the assistant with the Portland Trail Blazers, working as an assistant there for three years.
McMillan also has extensive head coaching experience. He had three stints as a head coach, first with the Seattle Supersonics from 2000-05, then the Indiana Pacers from 2016-20 and lastly with the Atlanta Hawks from 2021-23.
Adding these previous head coaches should relieve Lakers fans who have been nervous about the lack of activity in filling out the staff.
It was starting to look like previous head coaches had little interest in joining Redick. That noise only got louder when Dwane Casey reportedly removed his name from consideration for the Lakers coaching job.
Now, the Lakers have two coaches who match the criteria they mentioned they wanted and suddenly, the staff fills out nicely.
With the Lakers expected to be “more involved” with assistant coach hires and financially investing in the staff, more moves are undoubtedly on the horizon.
Other coaches, such as Sam Cassell, Jared Dudley and former Laker Rajon Rando, have been connected to the Lakers and could join Redick’s staff.
If Los Angeles can add a few of these candidates to the organization, Redick will suddenly have one of the most experienced and esteemed benches in the NBA to help him navigate his first year as an NBA coach.
By Edwin Garcia