JJ Redick and the Los Angeles Lakers are set to meet again this weekend to discuss the franchise’s vacant head-coaching position, team and league sources confirmed.
Redick, a 39-year-old former NBA player, has been considered the front-runner in league circles for most of the coaching search. That briefly changed last week when Connecticut coach Dan Hurley and the Lakers expressed mutual interest before Hurley interviewed in Los Angeles on Friday. He rejected the Lakers’ six-year, $70 million offer on Monday, according to team and league sources.
The Lakers’ brass regrouped Tuesday and began circling back to candidates, including Redick, according to team and league sources. The ESPN commentator and podcaster previously met with vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka for nearly two hours the week of May 13 at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago.
ESPN first reported the meeting taking place this weekend. Redick has been on the broadcast for the NBA Finals, which could end as soon as Friday if the Boston Celtics complete a sweep of the Dallas Mavericks.
New Orleans Pelicans associate head coach James Borrego has been the other central candidate over the past few weeks. Borrego met with Pelinka in person in Los Angeles on May 20 for over two hours. He also met with Lakers stakeholders at the team’s practice facility on May 29. Anthony Davis and Borrego, who overlapped briefly in New Orleans, have also built a rapport recently. Yahoo reported Wednesday that Borrego is also advancing in the head-coaching search with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Lakers’ plan of having a coach in place by the June 26 NBA Draft — and ideally sooner — remains unchanged, according to team and league sources.
As The Athletic previously reported, the Lakers are high on Redick’s potential and view the 15-year NBA veteran as a Pat Riley-like coaching prospect, according to league sources. Redick checks many of the boxes on the Lakers’ extensive checklist for their next coach.
Redick has yet to coach above the youth level. He’s the most forward-facing of the candidates given his high-profile playing career, run as a media personality and his recent “Mind the Game” podcast with LeBron James. Nevertheless, James has made it known that he is staying out of the team’s coaching search, according to people involved in the matter.
The coaching hire is pivotal as Los Angeles hopes to retain James, who must decide whether to exercise his $51.4 million player option for the 2024-25 season by June 29. The Lakers are open to any contract structure that will keep James in Los Angeles, league sources told The Athletic.
Multiple sources briefed on the matter said one person who has become a respected unofficial resource for the Lakers during the process is legendary former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, whose deep knowledge of candidates, such as Redick and others, provides a lens into the culture the organization wants and the characteristics of a potential staff around the next head coach.
Krzyzewski’s history with the Lakers goes back to 2004 when Dr. Jerry Buss made a strong yet unsuccessful offer to hire Coach K. Redick played for Krzyzewski at Duke from 2002 to 2006.
Redick spent 15 seasons in the NBA with six teams, most notably the Orlando Magic and LA Clippers. A renowned shooter, he posted a career average of 12.8 points per game with 41.5 percent 3-point shooting, 44.7 percent from the field and 89.2 percent from the free-throw line.
(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
