The Los Angeles Lakers have their next head coach.
After missing out on UConn's Dan Hurley, the Lakers pivoted to former NBA player JJ Redick, who has agreed to a four-year contract, according to sources, per ESPN. Redick, 39, is one of the youngest head coaches in the NBA and will be looking to lead a Lakers squad hungry for a championship after seeing their rival Boston Celtics win the league-leading 18th title. The first-time head coach's contract is reported to pay him around $8 million per season, according to The Athletic.
It was also reported that Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka offered Redick the position Thursday morning and that the former Los Angeles Clippers star has begun building his staff in preparation for the 2024-25 NBA season. Additionally, it was stated that Pelinka elected to hire Redick after being impressed with his ability to connect to players and his basketball IQ.
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Redick's hiring marks the end of a rather tumultuous start of the offseason for the Lakers. After Los Angeles' playoff run was cut short by the Denver Nuggets in five games, the Lakers quickly moved on from Darvin Ham, who was fired after just two seasons at the helm.
In his first season, Ham led the Lakers to the seventh seed (43-39) and a trip to the Western Conference, losing to the eventual champion Nuggets in four games. Then in the 2023-24 season, Ham led the Lakers to a 47-35 record, though Los Angeles was unceremoniously bounced from the playoffs., which led to his firing.
Soon thereafter, the Lakers began their coaching search, with Redick emerging as one of Los Angeles' top targets early in the process. However, it was also reported that the Lakers had their eyes on Hurley, especially after guiding UConn to back-to-back national championships.
That said, it appeared as if the Lakers' offer was not enough to entice the star coach away from the Huskies. It was reported that Los Angeles offered Hurley a six-year deal worth $70 million, which would have made him one of the highest-paid coaches in the league, but Hurley declined the Lakers' offer despite LeBron James' endorsement.
On "The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz," Hurley explained his decision to stay and coach the Huskies to a potential third straight championship played a bigger role in declining the Lakers' offer. "We've won back-to-back national championships at this place. This was never a leverage situation for me," Hurley told ESPN.
"I've had a contract in place here for a couple of weeks. And the final part, in terms of salary, has been done for a while. There are some other parts, like NIL and staff salary and some different things, that I want adjusted and I'm not comfortable with. But the sense of the idea that this was some conspiracy to get me a sweeter deal at UConn is just, it's lazy."
With Redick now in Los Angeles, that could also entice James to stay with the Lakers. Currently, James is slated to be an unrestricted free agent, meaning he is free to sign with any team.
In that same vein, James currently co-hosts a podcast with Redick, called the "Mind the Game Pod," where the two men break down different facets of basketball. The two first began recording the podcast in mid-March and James and Redick have a good rapport, with the two showcasing mutual respect for one another's basketball IQ.
It is also important to note that if James does return to the Lakers, Redick will be the fourth head coach he will have played under in his six seasons in Los Angeles. James previously played under Luke Walton, Frank Vogel, and Ham during his stint with the Lakers.