JJ Redick officially agrees to a four-year contract to coach the Lakers.

The Lakers and the ex-NBA player, who is currently an ESPN analyst, have reportedly reached a 4-year agreement.

JJ Redick, an ESPN NBA analyst and former NBA player, has reached an agreement to become the Los Angeles Lakers’ new coach.

According to a number of rumors, Redick and the Lakers reached a four-year contract agreement this morning. He will now look to assemble a team around him that includes seasoned assistants to complete his roster.

Redick played for five clubs throughout his 15-year NBA career and retired in 2021. He has never held a coaching position in the league. Immediately following his retirement, he started working as an NBA analyst for ESPN. He was the primary analyst for the network’s ABC broadcast of the 2024 NBA Finals.

Redick and LeBron James, the star of the Lakers, host a podcast called “Mind the Game,” which has already been extremely successful due to the fact that listeners are frequently impressed by the pair’s basketball knowledge and intelligent discussion of strategies and motivation.

Together, they will now play for the Lakers, where Redick will lead a team that is led by James, a player six months younger than Redick.

After firing Darvin Ham in early May after two seasons as head coach, the Lakers were in search of a new coach. Throughout that time, he went 90-74, earned two postseason berths, made it to the Western Conference Finals in 2023, and won the inaugural In-Season Tournament.

The Lakers’ 2023–24 season ended in a five-game loss to the Denver Nuggets in the opening round of the playoffs, capping a poor 47–35 season.

A closer look at Redick The Lakers made an incredible decision in selecting the 39-year-old Redick, who replaces James, the greatest scorer in league history, to lead a team that has 17 NBA titles, one of the best brand names in sports worldwide, and was led by a 15-year veteran with no coaching experience.

Redick has never coached anything other than his kids’ youth teams, yet he has spent his whole life around sports. Having played for four seasons under Mike Krzyzewski, he is the top scorer in Duke history.

Despite being an unconventional pick, Redick’s improbable rise has some parallels in recent NBA history and Lakers lore.

When Paul Westhead took over as the Lakers’ coach in November 1979, Pat Riley was a broadcaster for the team after Jack McKinney almost lost his life in a bicycling accident. Riley was not a head coach when Westhead hired him, but he did have coaching experience, and following a falling out with Magic Johnson in late 1981, Riley was named head coach of the Lakers.

Riley immediately launched his amazing career as a coach and executive by leading the Lakers to four titles in the 1980s.

Prospects for the Lakers: Los Angeles will select with the 17th overall pick in the 2024 Draft, a decision that Redick and his staff will undoubtedly influence. James, who was the oldest player in the league the previous season, will be a key member of the Lakers’ squad, and they will be seeking to add youth with their No. 55 choice in the second round.

The Lakers’ 2024–25 season was marred by disappointment because superstars James and Anthony Davis, the league’s top scorer with 76 games and 71 games respectively, played more than they had in an NBA season since 2017–18. Moreover, D’Angelo Russell had a fantastic regular season and established a new franchise record for 3-pointers made.

A challenging midseason was set in motion by injuries, erratic play, and a subpar defense. Following the In-Season Tournament, the Lakers had a 3-10 record over the Christmas break.

Although Ham guided the Lakers to the postseason in each of his two seasons as head coach, the Play-In Tournament elevated the stakes for Los Angeles this season. The Lakers advanced to the West Finals in 2022–23.

Both Davis and James have player options that expire on June 29 if they are not exercised this summer. There are eleven Lakers players in all that might become free agents this summer. After winning the 2020 championship in the Florida bubble, James, Davis, and the Lakers had gone without a postseason victory in three of their four seasons.

Frank Vogel was let go by the Lakers, exactly eighteen months after he had won the 2020 NBA championship. Ham was then hired in his place. Following another protracted coaching search—during which it was widely believed that the Lakers had targeted Tyronn Lue—Vogel took over for Luke Walton. However, the deal fell through due to concerns over money and control.