Chicago — According to ESPN, the Los Angeles Lakers will begin contacting coaching candidates soon, initially focusing on current assistants and ex-head coaches with whom they are unfamiliar.
According to reports, Lakers Vice President of Basketball Operations and General Manager Rob Pelinka is gathering information on a number of head-coaching candidates, including ESPN commentator JJ Redick. The initial wave of requests for interview authorization will come from candidates with whom the organization has not before met or who the organization knows less about than others.
In Pelinka’s conversations with officials across the league, the term “grinder” keeps coming up in the general manager’s description of an important characteristic for the next coach, sources said.
The initial interview list is expected to include assistant candidates such as Miami’s Chris Quinn and New Orleans’ James Borrego, sources said.
The search is expected to proceed in stages with this first wave, then a period of talking to coaches with whom the Lakers have more history, followed by a whittling of the list to a final round of candidates, sources said.
The Lakers fired Darvin Ham after two seasons earlier this month. Ham was 90-74 overall, with a trip to the Western Conference finals in his debut season followed by a five-game series loss to the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs this year.
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