After the Lakers have been eradicated from the playoff’s first spherical final week, the purple and gold entrance workplace determined to fireside coach Darvin Ham on Friday. With none time to waste, there are already some names been floated as potential replacements for this job emptiness.
Based on Los Angeles insider Dave McMenamin, Tyronn Lue and JJ Redick are amongst those that are thought-about “actual candidates” to take the function this summer time.
“JJ [Redick] definitely is an actual candidate in the event that they do open up this teaching search,” the ESPN reporter stated on the Dan Patrick Present. “There’s, I’d say, half a dozen of us on the market, together with probably the man who simply misplaced final night time towards the Mavericks, Tyronn Lue … that there shall be a course of there that there are a number of viable candidates that may get an interview.”
BREAKING: The Los Angeles Lakers are finalizing an settlement to rent JJ Redick because the franchise’s new coach, sources inform ESPN. pic.twitter.com/m4EQZud1Eb
— Adrian Wojnarowski ᶠᵃⁿ (@wojkespn) Might 4, 2024
One factor that’s for positive, is that famous person LeBron James holds Redick in excessive regard, particularly as they only began a podcast collectively known as Thoughts the Recreation, the place they break down every little thing that has to do with the NBA.
It was Lakers’ basic supervisor Rob Pelinka who broke the information about their coach’s discharge. “We tremendously respect Darvin Ham’s efforts on behalf of the Lakers and acknowledge the numerous accomplishments achieved over the previous two seasons together with final 12 months’s outstanding run to the Western Convention finals,” he stated in a press release.
Ham led the L.A. squad with a 90-74 (.549) mark, which included a Western Convention finals berth, two play-in victories, and the first-ever In-Season Event title. Pelinka stated that he knowledgeable the previous coach of the choice in a telephone name earlier than telling the press.
“All of us need to thank Darvin for this dedication and positivity. Whereas this was a troublesome resolution to make, it’s the finest plan of action following a full assessment of the season. The group will stay unwavering in its dedication to ship championship-caliber basketball to Lakers followers world wide,” the GM assured.
After their first-round elimination, Ham described his time guiding the Lakers as “a hell of a two years”
Darvin, who nonetheless had two years remaining on his contract, appears to be content material together with his time in Los Angeles it doesn’t matter what was the end result. Proper after he suffered his second-consecutive elimination by the hands of the Nuggets, he talked about his tenure.
“It’s been a hell of a two years … I’ll let you know that,” he stated after Recreation 5 on Monday. “Sitting on this seat, it’s been a hell of a two years. Loads of good issues that received executed, however in the end, you need to win that final prize.”
“I couldn’t be extra happy with our crew regardless of every little thing that occurred. Clearly, the sequence didn’t go in our favor, didn’t begin the way in which we wished it to, however to win that one at house, our guys confirmed quite a lot of guts and quite a lot of character,” Ham added.
Based on insider Shams Charania, the next-coach listing to develop into the twenty ninth Lakers tactician additionally embrace Kenny Atkinson, Mike Budenholzer and naturally, JJ Redick and Ty Lue.