The Los Angeles Lakers are likely to announce the hiring of JJ Redick as their new head coach any day now, and Redick is reportedly hard at work building an assistant coaching staff. Among the names discussed for a Lakers assistant role has been longtime former NBA Sam Cassell, who just won an NBA Championship as an assistant for the Boston Celtics.
But while the Lakers' interest in Cassell has been widely reported, it appears the Celtics are doing what they can to retain the coveted coach. According to NBA insider Marc Stein, Boston may be planning to “elevate” Cassell to ensure he is not another one of its coaching staff departures this offseason.
Stein reported that the Celtics, who lost Charles Lee, the new Charlotte Hornets head coach who reportedly beat out Redick for that job, and Jeff Van Gundy, a senior consultant who is now Tyronn Lue's lead assistant coach with the Los Angeles Clippers, are “keen” on keeping Cassell on their staff. Elevating one typically involves a pay raise, as well as an improvement in job title and responsibilities. With Lee's departure — Lee had been named Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla's lead assistant last summer — it would seem likely Cassell would fill the vacancy and receive a raise as a result.
Cassell has now won four NBA Championships in his career (three as a player and one as a coach). A 15-year NBA veteran, Cassell won back-to-back titles as a young player on the Houston Rockets in the mid-1990s before winning his third ring with the Celtics in 2008.
Since retiring a year later, Cassell has served as an assistant coach in the NBA. He began his coaching career with the Washington Wizards, with whom he spent five years, before reuniting with former Celtics coach Doc Rivers on the Los Angeles Clippers. After six seasons in Los Angeles, Cassell followed Rivers and worked three years with the Philadelphia 76ers before Rivers' firing last offseason, at which time he joined Mazzulla's staff and returned to Boston.
JJ Redick's potential Lakers assistants include Scott Brooks and Rajon Rondo
While Sam Cassell may not be available, the Los Angeles Lakers may be signing another member of the 2008 Boston Celtics to join JJ Redick's coaching staff: Rajon Rondo. The former NBA point guard, who won a title with the Celtics and the Lakers, may soon be on the Lakers' bench.
“The Lakers, meanwhile, are said to be seeking two former NBA head coaches for Redick's staff — if they can find two — to assist Redick,” Marc Stein reported via his ‘The Stein Line' Substack. “Scott Brooks and Rajon Rondo are frequently mentioned as strong candidates for assistant roles in L.A.”
Rondo played 16 seasons in the NBA and earned a reputation for being one of the league's smartest players. Lakers star LeBron James has commented on many occasions, including during his ‘Mind the Game' podcast with Redick, that Rondo should go into coaching because of his intellect.
“[Rondo] can process, flip, do things on the go like that,” James said of Rondo in March. “It is very weird to me that he is not coaching at a high level. I think it is because he doesn’t want to do it. It is a lot, and who wants to deal with all these rich and entitled guys all the time?”
Scott Brooks is another interesting name. If Redick would like to add former head coaches to his staff, of which not many are available, Brooks would seem to be a good addition. While highly criticized at times for his shortcomings as the head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Washington Wizards, he succeeded in getting the Thunder to their first and only NBA Finals in 2012. Brooks currently serves as an assistant coach on Chauncey Billups' Portland Trail Blazers staff.
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