The Los Angeles Lakers have made a change to their coaching staff, hiring former Washington Wizards assistant coach Zach Guthrie to lead the South Bay Lakers for the 2024-25 season. The Lakers parted ways with their previous South Bay head coach Dane Johnson after one season in which they finished with a 26-24 overall record.
Guthrie has been an NBA assistant since the 2016-17 season, when he joined Quin Snyder’s staff with the Utah Jazz. He spent four seasons there, followed by two seasons with Rick Carlisle and the Dallas Mavericks, then the last three seasons with the Wizards. And now, he joins first-time head coach JJ Redick and the Lakers.
Guthrie spoke about his excitement with joining the Lakers and what he feels he can bring to Redick’s vision for the G League development team.
“I’m incredibly honored to step into this role as head coach of the South Bay Lakers,” Guthrie said. “Helping players unlock their full potential is critically important to me. I let players know it’s a partnership and it’s our collective mission to help them succeed in every way possible. I couldn’t be more excited to work alongside Coach Redick and his staff to build a developmental program dedicated to excellence at every level.”
Redick and the Lakers have preached a brand new player development program for the entirety of the offseason. They believe it’s going to be a game-changer for players like Max Christie, Dalton Knecht and Bronny James, and Redick has been clear that it will be implemented at all levels.
That’s likely part of why it took all this time to land on a coach for South Bay, as Redick needed to be sure he could bring someone in that will preach the same thing he is at the G League level. Perhaps Guthrie’s biggest early test is going to be the development of James. All eyes will be on him in the G League given the controversy surrounding his selection in the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft.
But Guthrie appears prepared for the challenge, as he knows exactly what he came to L.A. to do.
Lakers never made offer to Cedi Osman
It has been a disappointing offseason for the Lakers as they have been turned down by a number of their top targets.
First, they unsuccessfully pursued UConn’s Dan Hurley to be their next head coach. Then, they made Klay Thompson their top free agent target but he instead chose to sign with the Dallas Mavericks.
And most recently, it was reported that Cedi Osman turned down a training camp invite from L.A. in order to play overseas. While on the surface that may not be a good look, it made sense from Osman’s perspective considering the Lakers don’t have any open roster spots and he had no chance of making the team.
As it turns out though, NBA insider Marc Stein is reporting that an offer was never even made to Osman.
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