JJ Redick will be leading the Los Angeles Lakers as a first-time head coach this year, but he won’t be muddling through alone.
The Lakers are hiring two former head coaches as top assistants on Redick’s staff, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski: Nate McMillan and Scott Brooks.
McMillan, 59, was most recently the head coach of the Atlanta Hawks, and has a long resume. He’s 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 the next season and has been coaching ever since. He was elevated to head coach in 2000 and stayed until 2005, when he left to become the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers. He also spent four years as head coach of the Indiana Pacers.
Brooks’ resume is almost as long. He’s been an assistant on Chauncey Billups’ staff with the Blazers since 2021, but prior to that had been a head coach for 12 years. He spent seven seasons leading the Oklahoma City Thunder starting as interim head coach in 2008 (having joined them the season before as an assistant when they were the SuperSonics), then five seasons with the Washington Wizards beginning in 2016.
That’s an incredible amount of experience on Redick’s staff, and that’s just to start. There are more spots to fill. We’ll have to wait and see if the Lakers continue to surround Redick with extreme amounts of coaching experience, or if they’ll let Redick get a little creative.
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