Lakers head coach Mike D’Antoni has spent the better part of the off-season receiving news that various assistant coaches were leaving for other jobs.
However, D’Antoni promoted Mark Madsen from the Los Angeles Defenders head coach of the NBA’s D-League to coach and he could be closing in on another candidate.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports tweeted earlier today an assistant from the Phil Jackson era could be on D’Antoni’s staff:
Kurt Rambis has emerged as a strong candidate to join Mike D’Antoni’s coaching staff with the Lakers, league sources tell Y! Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) June 29, 2013
Rambis hasn’t coached in any capacity in the NBA after he was fired by the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2011. During his brief tenure in Minnesota, Rambis accumulated a 32-132 record.
If Rambis does join D’Antoni’s staff, it’d be the third time he’d be an assistant as he helped the spent 2001-04 and 2007-09 accumulating four championships in the process.
While it isn’t clear if Jackson’s role as consultant will weigh into Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss’s decision to hire Rambis, but it sounds like D’Antoni is starting to finally round out his staff.
Currently, Rambis is working for ESPN and TWC SportsNet as an analyst, but would definitely jump at the first opportunity to get back into the coaching ranks.
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