With the Los Angeles Lakers expected to do a long and thorough search in order to find their next head coach, there are sure to be plenty of names brought up as potential candidates. One that hasn’t gotten too much attention is current New Orleans Pelicans lead assistant coach James Borrego.
Borrego has some head coaching experience, spending four years in charge of the Charlotte Hornets and made some massive improvements there. In his final season in Charlotte in 2022, he led them to a winning record and one of the best offenses in the league and is also viewed as a major reason behind the Pelicans’ offensive leap this past season.
The Lakers seem to be interested as well, as according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Borrego is viewed as one of the names to watch in the franchise’s search for a head coach:
“A couple of names to watch in this search – a James Borrego, the top assistant in New Orleans. They went from an offensive that was 21-22 in the league last year to a top-10 offense, really found peak performance for Zion Williamson handling the ball, kind of playing that point forward position. Borrego had a good run as head coach in Charlotte. Went from 23 to 33 to 43 wins there. Obviously was with Gregg Popovich for a long time in San Antonio. He’ll be a candidate in this process.”
Borrego’s overall record as a head coach may not inspire too much confidence as he was 138-163 in four years with the Hornets. But what he accomplished there should not go unnoticed. He saw gradual improvement over his final three seasons there, ending with a winning record and narrowly missing the playoffs with many feeling his firing there was unwarranted.
In his final season in Charlotte, the Hornets ranked fourth in the league in points per game and ninth in offensive rating. He followed that up by helping to establish the Pelicans as one of the top offenses in the league when they were completely healthy, which only furthers his resume.
The Lakers would reportedly prefer someone with head coaching experience and Borrego fits that bill, and coming from the coaching tree of Gregg Popovich usually is a positive as well. The Lakers will go through a number of candidates, and Borrego stands out as someone who could potentially check a lot of boxes.
Lakers ‘intrigued’ by JJ Redick as potential head coach
Another name that has been brought up as the potential next head coach of the Lakers is former player JJ Redick. While he has no coaching experience, he is known as one of the best basketball minds in recent league memory and was a finalist for the head coaching job in Charlotte.
But despite his lack of experience, the Lakers are reportedly ‘intrigued’ in Redick as an option and the franchise has been making calls in order learn more about him, according to a recent report. The team is going to take a long look at plenty of candidates and while he is an unknown commodity, he may very well be in play for the Lakers.
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