This summer has been more about who isn’t coming to the Lakers than who is.
Dan Hurley reportedly turned down the Lakers’ head coaching offer, Klay Thompson picked Dallas over Los Angeles and now, Dwane Casey is reportedly withdrawing his name from consideration as part of JJ Redick’s staff.
Casey has been coaching in the NBA for over 30 years and was the head coach of the Detroit Pistons from 2018-23.
His coaching pedigree perfectly matched what vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka and Redick mentioned as their ideal assistant during Redick’s introductory press conference.
Another potential assistant is also off the board, with Terry Stotts reportedly coaching with the Golden State Warriors next year. It’s starting to look harder and harder for the Lakers to fulfill their promise of head coaching experience on the bench.
This has to be concerning, given that Redick is currently the only coach on the Lakers’ staff and the number of coaches available for hire is getting smaller by the day.
The offseason may be long, but building out the staff quickly is crucial. Free agents want to know who they will be playing for besides Redick and the Lakers already have Summer League basketball looming, making it that much harder to coach the young guys and build out the staff.
Redick confirmed on Tuesday that Dane Johnson would be the head coach of the Lakers during Summer League action and that Bronny James and Dalton Knecht will play in both the California Classic and Las Vegas Summer League.
With the Lakers reportedly willing to financially invest in assistants, it begs the question, why are coaches choosing not to come here?
If the Lakers fail to hire the caliber of assistants they mentioned, it will appear that this is not an alluring job or franchise to be associated with at the moment.
That might seem unfair or exaggerated, but perception quickly becomes reality in the NBA.
For Pelinka and the Lakers’ sake, they need to start landing some of the personnel they’ve been seeking.
By Edwin Garcia