Why do the Lakers want Redick? (Hour 2)

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For more details, request your appointment at Midas.com. All righty, rocking and rolling our number two of our radio program. It is the Zach Gelb show. The big news of the day, the Lakers.

The smoke, the white smoke is finally out. We know what happened. JJ Redick is the new coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. It's a four-year deal, according to Adrian Wojnarowski. You know, I don't know how much you follow this, Samter, but I always love like a good media rivalry and a good media beef. And Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Sharania, I'm assuming they're still close, but naturally people will just pit one against the other because Woj is the main insider for ESPN and then Shams is the other main insider. Shams is with what, FanDuel and like Stadium? I think it is.

You know, it's funny. I know Woj is on ESPN. Shams I just know is Shams, right?

That dude gets like so many stories. So many stories, but they, you know, Woj took Shams underneath his wing and Shams's mentor is Adrian Wojnarowski. So we kind of make it in like a media battle, you know, Woj against Shams.

And I'm sure there's competition, but I don't think these two hate each other's guts, but they're both insiders and they're both competitors. Well, the whole reporting here of Shams and Woj with JJ Redick, it's kind of funny to me. And I wonder who was the person that gave Woj this breaking news report?

Because if you recall, originally it was Shams and like JJ said in the broadcast, or he said it with the goalies, he was like, oh, we'll deal with the Shams report after the NBA finals. But with Shams Sharania, he was the one that originally had the report that the Lakers target is JJ Redick. And then boom, not that long after that, Adrian Wojnarowski came out and was like, the target is actually Danny Hurley. And we know Danny Hurley and the entire Hurley family, Bob Sr. and Bob Hurley are extremely close with Adrian Wojnarowski. So Woj then ended up having the story, obviously, that Danny Hurley turned the job down.

It was a six-year deal worth $70 million. And I would have thought, Samter, that it would have been Shams who then would have broken the JJ Redick story. Now, I have not seen Shams's Twitter account as of late, but the way that you first saw it, right, was Adrian Wojnarowski. Correct, Amundo?

Can you do me a favor here? Well, actually, can you give me the timestamp on Adrian Wojnarowski when he broke that news? It was like, what, 3.10?

It was pretty close when that's what we got in the air. And it wasn't that long after that. But I'm looking at Woj's or Shams's Twitter right now. And he didn't have a tweet saying that JJ Redick got the job. It was just inside the Lakers hiring JJ Redick as the new head coach in the franchise you're in on Redick for the last month.

The Dan Hurley Hail Mary and how Redick shapes LA's present and future. It's at the athletic is where Shams Sharani is at right now. So Woj's initial breaking news tweet was at 303 Eastern.

This article you're referencing from Shams was 325 Eastern. So at no point did Shams, it didn't seem like Shams scooped Woj. Isn't that weird, though? He was the guy from the start that said Redick was the guy with the Lakers. Then Woj brings in Danny Hurley. And it's not Shams who ends up breaking the JJ Redick news. Maybe the Lakers felt like they owed Woj. So they're like, you know, Woj, we're going to give this to you first.

You know what it is? JJ Redick works for ESPN. I'm sure JJ Redick and Woj have had a bunch of conversations or yeah, he's getting hired by the Lakers. He has no he's not beholden to ESPN anymore. So it doesn't need to give those the scoop to Woj.

But in a weird way, it should give Woj a leg up. And maybe maybe Shams and JJ, I don't know about their relationship. Maybe JJ was genuinely annoyed at Shams because like we played that audio and he went on the Golic podcast, Mike Golic and what's Golic sons? Is it Mike Golic Jr., Jr., right? Mike Golic Jr. So you had a senior Golic and junior Golic and JJ was on that podcast.

Like, oh, I got to ask you about the story. He's like, oh, we'll address the Shams news after the playoffs end. Kind of sounded annoyed that that got out there. So maybe it was JJ Redick going to Woj saying, feels done. You know, we'll play into the Woj Shams. Maybe he said something to Shams and it was supposed to be off the record or whatever. And Shams broke it anyway.

Flabbermouth. And then JJ was like, you know what? Next time I'm going to the other guy.

Let me tell you. But by the way, just real quick, great tweet here by Coach George Karl. I hurt my shoulder this week.

Instead of an experienced orthopedic, maybe I should just ask my neighbor with a pre-med degree from college last month to fix me up. Hell, if inexperience doesn't matter to the Lakers, why should I care? I love George Karl. He's a great follower on social. A lot of his former players don't seem to love him as much.

Just from what I read. I know he was my coach growing up. Supersonics, Sean Camp, Gary Payton. You were a Supersonics fan? Yeah, that was my that was my team. That's why I don't really have like a real NBA team right now. So I usually don't care about the geography because I root out of a team that's out of my home base, just one team. But you were you're a Yankee fan, a Supersonics fan. I was all New York except for basketball.

I was a Yankees Rangers. But now you're a Chiefs fan. Yeah. That's like everywhere.

Yeah. And you love Arizona State, right? Well, I mean, I lived in Arizona.

I covered Arizona State and I worked for the Arizona Cardinals. So and Northeast is, you know, in the New York area. And plus West Coast, different divisions and conferences. I never had to worry about my New York teams battling with the Cardinals, but I just never liked the Knicks growing up. And, you know, the Nets weren't an option because they were in Jersey. And I couldn't root for a Jersey team, even though the Yankees and even the Jets and Giants are there. But the Sonics were my team and George Karl was my coach. In Kansas City and you got no problem rooting for a team in Seattle. That happened last year.

I was 42 years old when I switched. Were you an Oklahoma City Thunder fan? No.

Okay. No, because at that point, once they left Seattle, that was the end of it for me. But I was a KD fan for like a year and a half. I always had a soft spot for the the Sonics when Ray Allen was there. I always loved Ray Allen. Those teams, though, man, like even like the old like 80s, 90s with Xavier McDaniel.

Oh, my God, that was awesome. So if you think I don't like J.J. Riddick, there's one person that can't stand J.J. Riddick more than me, and that's our former boss, Spike Eskin. So I don't know how they first got into it. But Spike, right, has a big Sixers podcast.

Now does Afternoon Drive in Philly. You know, Spike has a big ego. J.J. Riddick has a big ego.

So sometimes when you have guys with two big egos, they could kind of clash. So Spike tweets out. Congrats, J.J. Riddick. Welcome to the podcasters. The podcaster was not qualified for his job club. Glad to have you.

Membership card is in the mail. I'm assuming and I'm not all caught up to date on the entirety of Spike's beef with J.J. Riddick. I just know a little bit about it. I'm assuming since J.J. Riddick can be a little bit of a douche. He once tweeted to Spike saying, hey, you're a podcaster who's not qualified for your job.

I'm sure that's the joke here that Spike is making. But I will say this, Samter. I think this is the best take or the most intriguing take since the J.J. Riddick hire. And don't get me wrong, I'm not talking like we could all react how we did. LeBron's influence on this, J.J. Riddick's influence on that.

But in all reality, like those takes are already given. And now it's just official. It's right, the stamp getting the tees are getting, you know, got crossed and the eyes got dotted here. And J.J. Riddick is the coach. Here's Kendrick Perkins on the ESPN. Badger, don't worry, we don't have the sound.

This just happened like literally 10 minutes ago. Badger was a deer in headlights right there. He's like, what sound do we have?

I don't see any Kendrick Perkins audio. I'm not trying to give you a heart attack today, Badger. This is a Thursday. I'm not here tomorrow. I'm off tomorrow.

We're trying to have a nice, easy, smooth sailing show today. But Kendrick Perkins is on the ESPN on this breaking news. They have Perkins and Yedonis Haslam on the ESPN. And Perk said if J.J. Riddick is not thriving and Anthony Davis is not playing at an elite level and he's not happy, I wouldn't be surprised if he wants out of L.A. I'm going to give it to the All-Star break to see how this goes. So we know the NBA is basically like the Real Housewives of New Jersey.

It's all about drama, drama, drama, drama, drama. Anthony Davis has a player option in going into the 27, 2027, 2028 season. Now, the reason I bring this up and it just Perk given his opinion on it, given his thoughts on it, but remember when we had John Fanta on and this was before Hurley turned him down and he's like, why did Hurley get involved? And he's like, maybe something that could have happened here. And I think John may have caught himself. He was like, there's a player on the Lakers who wasn't going to be thrilled with the J.J. Hyer and may have said something to ownership or management. And then remember, John said this. Santa, he goes, it was a player, maybe two players, maybe even three. But it wasn't LeBron James. Right.

That's what John said on this show. Oh, when I heard that my mind zeroed into the name of Anthony Davis, because outside of Anthony Davis and LeBron James, there's not enough player. There's not a player on that roster that has enough clout to dictate the actual coach of who's going to be the coach of the Lakers or try to disrupt them from hiring J.J. Riddick, which we now know that they've hired J.J. Riddick. So do you think that's something that we need to monitor, Mike, the relationship between J.J. Riddick and Anthony Davis? Because a lot of us are going to perceive this as, hey, this is LeBron's guy.

This is LeBron's Hyer. Even the Lakers will tell you he had no part in the search. But this Hyer is just as important for Anthony Davis, because let's say LeBron opts out, resigns with the Lakers, and let's say he plays there for two more years. J.J.'s on a four-year deal. Then you can get rid of him after two years, heck, the Pistons just showed the door to Monte Williams after one, and they still owe him $65 million in the final five years of his contract. But this move is not only a move we're sure, like I called it a placeholder Hyer, but if you can develop a good relationship with Anthony Davis, isn't the idea in Los Angeles, and even LeBron has talked about this, for Anthony Davis to become the face of the franchise. And J.J. now has a leg up to be the long-term coach of the Lakers, because, A, he got hired, but B, you get this next year or two, however long LeBron plays, to develop that relationship with Anthony Davis. And ultimately, if Anthony Davis isn't vibing with you, then two things happen. Anthony Davis either requests a trade, or J.J. Reddit gets fired. So what do you make here of maybe some of the immediate assumptions that Anthony Davis is going to need to monitor J.J. Reddit, and he's maybe not necessarily thrilled with this hire? I mean, I guess he'll have to just kind of keep an eye.

We'll keep an eye to see if there's any issues. But it's worth keeping an eye on. Yeah. A.D. seems the kind of guy who can be a malcontent, forces way out of New Orleans. Yeah, but that was fair. Sure, but at the end of the day, he seems like a guy who, you know, if he's not happy. Like, let's be real, LeBron wanted him.

Yeah. That was an era, which it still exists, but that was at the height of the era of teaming up and forming these dynamic duos, these super teams. And Anthony Davis on his own doesn't win a championship.

So when LeBron wants you and you have that rich ball connection, it was just so easy to eventually find the way, even though it took some time to facilitate that deal and get that deal done. Yeah, it's worth keeping an eye on. One of a championship. Yeah. But. Well, in the bubble, I don't know how much that counts. Oh, you're not one of those dopes. You really are.

Are you one of those Mickey Mouse championship guys on social media? To me, it's an asterisk. It doesn't mean it doesn't count. It counts.

But there's an asterisk. Bad take. I disagree. Bad. I disagree. Everyone was playing to the same standard, right?

Yeah, but everyone was in the same bubble, right? So besides Lemon Pepper Lou, Lou Williams, when he went off to Magic City to get those Lemon Pepper Lou wings, besides that. So here's my question for you. What is Anthony Davis's biggest issue as far as the basketball court? His biggest issue as far as actually getting on it. Correct.

And what happens when you have a four month layover before you get back into a modify? He got healthy. It was similar to Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers winning during the shortened season. What is Clayton Kershaw's biggest issue when it comes down the stretch? Big game. Well, big game, but he's his pants when he sees it. He's always hurt towards the end of the year, or at least he's worn down towards the end of the year.

And what happened? Shortened season, Clayton Kershaw looked great. Yeah, but everyone was able to get healthy. Right, but again, when you're a guy who specifically, you're a great player in that sport and your big issue is about getting hurt late in the season and you just don't happen to have that one issue that one year, do they win the championship if there's no bubble?

Probably not because Anthony Davis most likely would have gotten hurt sometime in April, May or June or whatever. How long have you been holding on to that one for? That's still brewing with you all these years later?

It's not brewing. It's just something that I feel is the case. Again, I'm not discounting their championship. They won a title. They are world champions.

Great. They but there's an asterisk there because it was a different type of series for the Chiefs when they lost that Super Bowl to Brady and the Bucks. Is there anything that you're concocting there? Yeah, well, being a former Jets fan and knowing Todd Bowles and Bruce Arians the way I know them clearly something shady was going on with Brady. Obviously, Scottie Miller was doing something shady behind the scenes and I'm sure Shaq Barrett was clearly, you know, having some issues.

I certainly think that the Chiefs got screwed over. Shaq Barrett? What are you going after Shaq Barrett for? Why don't you throw him in the mix there? Game on the show. Nice guy. I've always been a fan of Shaq Barrett. Because I'm just throwing out the names that are coming to my mind for the Bucks that may have done something shady to my Chiefs in that game and my Chiefs don't lose on their own.

That doesn't happen. Why are we continuing to talk about a placeholder coach that has never coached before from our buddy called Ben in the YouTube chat? I don't know because it's the biggest story right now in sports. Why are we reacting to the it's the three one of the three biggest jobs in all of basketball and it's LeBron James and it's Los Angeles.

You know, Ben, that's like a large in Park Street or YouTube post. Colin, tell me what you want to talk. You know, though, he's not wrong. I don't want to have to be talking about this. I don't want to have to be talking about the Lakers hiring J.J. Redick. I wish that they could have hired somebody else. I get it. But whoever the Lakers hire, we're probably talking about today. Oh, yeah.

All right. Even if they hired James Borrego, we're having a conversation. The NBA season is over, right? Celtics won the championship. I love hockey. Wait, the Celtics won the championship? Why would that happen here?

And then there's some people that just try to discredit Jason Tatum. You have Stanley Cup final game six tomorrow night. Big game. Big game. I hope Edmonton wins.

I want to see a game seven on Monday. And baseball doesn't resonate nationally. You know, the day by day minutia, I guess would be the word there of the games. Good word. Yeah.

Right. Look, I pulled that out of my ass. That's that's S.A.T. vocabulary right there. It's the only thing I took from the S.A.T. You know, math and the essay. Death of me.

Surprised Temple even took me. And that this is the biggest story by far. You tune into any national show today right now. Any national show is talking to the Los Angeles Lakers. And quite frankly, if they're not talking about J.J. Riddick getting the job, they're not doing a good job. So that's the bottom line. And the fact that you that somebody hates the fact that we're talking about the Lakers is the reason why we're talking about the Lakers. Because if we were talking about the Pistons right now, nobody would care.

And empathy is worse than hatred. I have J.J. Riddick's number. Should we try to cold call him on the air? You think he picks up?

You can try it. There's no chance he picks up. Right.

No way. Hey, J.J. It's that help him on the air. I mean, he would delete and block your number immediately. He may have already blocked my number because we had one incident once on Twitter. And I called him and asked to come on the show and he didn't pick up. And I never heard back, but he did tweet back. Yeah. So he would block your number then to the Lakers.

Never, ever, ever. Should I try here? Let's try. Let's try to call J.J. Riddick. And I got to tell him we're on the air. Oh, it's ringing. I feel like he's a change your number type of guy. I'm surprised this is ringing.

Let's see. Ah, hey, it's Spike Eskin. Congratulations, J.J.

Thought he was going to pick up. I'm a little disappointed that he has the generic, you know, robot voice. I was going to ask him this. Hi, this is J.J. You want to go to my podcast?

I hung up quickly because I don't know if it says the number, but the reason why I was going to call him was I was going to say our buddy Ben, let's just call him in the YouTube chat, doesn't want us to talk about if you were hosting the show today. J.J., what should we be talking about outside of you? I feel like you'd give us a good answer.

Answer. Anthony Irwin does a great job covering the Lakers. He's going to join us next.

We'll talk more. J.J. Riddick. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show.

All right. It is Zach Gelb Show on the Infinity Sports Network. Anthony Irwin does a great job as a Lakers insider for Lakers Daily.

You can also listen to him to Odyssey's Lakers Lounge, and he's kind enough to join us once again on the Zach Gelb Show as the Los Angeles Lakers have hired J.J. Riddick as their next coach, inking him to a four-year deal. Anthony, appreciate the time. How you been, my man? You know, it's been a few days.

It is. It's been an interesting few days. I broke the story on Monday. I was told on Monday that J.J. Riddick and the Lakers had come to an agreement that he was going to be their next head coach for whatever reason, for whatever combination of reasons.

We arrived here today where Woj broke it. He says that the agreement just happened to come this morning after saying last night that there was no agreement in place somehow in a few hours this morning, went from no contract to an agreement. But J.J. has been operating, I'm told, since the finals, basically, as the Lakers head coach, prepping for draft stuff, talking to players, getting a feel for what his system might look like, what the team might look like, what his assistant coaching staff might look like. There's a lot of work to be done there.

But, yeah, J.J. Riddick is the guy. So you had the story earlier in the week, like you just said. Now that, right, everyone is understanding of the story and other people are reporting it, too, when you react to it, good hire, bad hire, you know, are you indifferent about it?

What's kind of your take on it? I don't know if it's possible to really have a great sense for for how this is going to go. I think I think the fairest analysis that can be offered up right now is that the Lakers are in win now mode and hiring a first time coach, not head coach, first time coach in the NBA brings inherent risk there. There is no example in recent or any NBA history of a first time coach stepping in and being immediately as good as you need to be to, you know, to win a championship, because that's the expectation while LeBron is in your organization is is to contend for or win championships.

And I think there's there's real risk there in bringing in somebody who lacks that kind of experience. That said, I I'm really looking forward to the first time LeBron will have his head coach in that seat. Frank Vogel was not his preferred hire.

Darvin Ham wasn't his preferred hire. You'll finally have that here with JJ Redick. And I'm really curious to see what a bought in LeBron James looks like with with a head coach.

And you look at a guy like Ty Lue, right, who was LeBron's coach in Cleveland, right? They get rid of Blatt. They make Lou the head coach. They win a championship.

It's I still go back to that a few years ago. If they would have just given him a four year deal, all these other coaches that we've seen in L.A. would have never happened. And there's actually some stability at that spot, because, you know, that's the biggest part of being the coach of the Lakers.

If LeBron vibes with you. What's funny about all of that is Lou turned down the Lakers for two reasons. One, he he is on the record saying that they lowballed him. He wasn't happy with the with the finances of of the and the length of that contract. And two, he didn't like the idea of Jason Kidd going, you know, being kind of forced onto his staff by Rob Polinka. And Kidd would essentially would have served basically as as a voice from the coaching circle into the front office. He was going to be like telling Polinka how things were going. So Lou wasn't really comfortable, comfortable about that. And on both fronts, like it had had the other side just compromised.

Everything would have been better. It had the Lakers been willing to give Lou a contract that extended beyond LeBron's deal at the time he would have been here. The Lakers are now working potentially on LeBron's third contract in his tenure. And then if if Lou just accepts Kidd onto his staff, Kidd has shown himself to be a very good assistant coach and a pretty good head coach, too. So both sides of that has some has an egg on their face.

But, you know, most most relevant to the situation. You're absolutely right. Had they just given Lou the contract that he deserved, frankly, as as a and and and and by the way, you look at the numbers that would have been on that contract compared to the ones that are going out now, it would have been a very reasonable contract at the time. Had they just done that, they avoid the you know, Frank Vogel firing, they avoid the Darwin Ham firing.

And then now you avoid this risk that you have here going into the J.J. Redick era. Anthony Irwin here with us for Lakers fans that are upset with this hire. They tried and I'll say try in air quotes to go get Dan Hurley if they really wanted him. They could have made him a much bigger offer. I thought 70 million dollars over six years was the light offer for what he's done in a damn good situation that he's in right now with the Yukon Huskies. Like who else?

Right. You heard Borrego. You heard Sam Cassell. You know who would have been the guy that I'm not saying moves the needle because I don't know if that candidate was out there, but maybe Lakers fans should have turned an eye to and said, OK, that's the guy that they should have hired over J.J. Redick.

There just isn't that guy out there. You can maybe say Mike Budenholzer, but it's kind of tough to it's kind of tricky to go from the fruit from the tree to the tree. You know, Darvin Ham wasn't very good. And then you go right back to the coaching tree and hire and hire Mike Budenholzer.

I don't know how that would have gone over with Lakers fans. And outside of that, James Borrego was like, OK, in Charlotte, I guess it's kind of hard to define how good a coach can be in Charlotte, especially when Michael Jordan was was the owner over there. He's been fine as an assistant in New Orleans. People speak highly of him, but he's not an overwhelming candidate. And I guess you can maybe say Mike Inouye or David Adelman, you know, as kind of the hot up and coming assistant coaches. But that's what Darvin Ham was. He was the hot up and coming assistant coach coming off of a championship.

So I there just isn't really that. And that's part of why J.J. Redick is so appealing is is you know what? The candidate pool isn't all that great.

Let's make a splash and see if we stumble into somebody who, you know, might just be able to have the charisma to to make this work eventually. What do the Lakers think they're getting in J.J.? I saw Shams just put out an article that says the Lakers believe that J.J. Redick could be their version of Eric Spulstra, which I kind of laugh at a little bit. But you tell me what you think the Lakers believe they're getting in J.J. They compared him to Pat Riley.

Which they did that at the very beginning, like the onset of their candidate search. And I joke with Margo Robbie. Right. Like, that's what I dream of going on a date with. Come on.

Like, what are we doing here? It's just like I I joked at the time that once you compare, you know, your potential head coach candidate to Pat Riley, you kind of have to hire Pat Riley, because if you don't, it's like, oh, he he really struck us as Pat Riley. But honestly, Pat Riley is a little overrated.

So I I don't know, honestly, how they feel about him. I think I think with Redick, the biggest thing that they're bringing in is kind of a bridge back to LeBron to just say, because look, the relationship between LeBron and Clutch and the Lakers since that Russell Westbrook trade hasn't been where it needs to be, to be quite frank. Uh, he didn't like the fact that Rob Polinka was basically telling anybody who would listen that the person actually responsible for Russell Westbrook was LeBron James. When Rob pulled the trigger, it's not like LeBron tied his hands behind his back and forced him to make that trade. We've seen the type of combo guards that Rob Lincoln has acquired since Russell Westbrook.

He's this type. So I think this the biggest thing here is that it's it's a it's a kind of olive branch to say, like, all right, LeBron, you have a couple of years here left. Let's end this on a high note. Let's at the very least be able to part ways and say that we gave it a go over those last few years. They're probably going to draft Bronny, too, and really see if you can bring that relationship back to where it was before the Russell Westbrook trade.

So so that's genuine. Like when it gets reported that LeBron has nothing to do with this coaching search, like he's sitting one out, this is just Polinka extending that branch to him. Like LeBron really had no say, like he didn't say anything about this coaching search to the Lakers like that to me. It's just tough to believe, right?

No, it totally is. It absolutely I don't believe it either. I would imagine that LeBron at various points made it known that Redick was his preferred guy, but he he doesn't want the blood on his hands that he had after Russell Westbrook. You know, where Lakers fans are always going to blame him for Russell Westbrook from here on out and could make a real argument that trading for Russell Westbrook ended their title run, ended their title window. And I think here with with Redick, he he understands that there's risk in hiring a first time coach to this type of a position. He understands that there's risk hiring a coach to this type of position. This is the stance that he's taken basically with all coaching hires.

He doesn't want the blood on his hands because he knows NBA head coaches, professional head coaches are hired to be fired. Anthony, before we let you run, you know, I know we'll talk about the LeBron JJ dynamic and we know that they're close with the podcast that they do. I'm most fascinated to see how JJ is going to mesh with Anthony Davis, because, yes, he's hired to coach the Lakers and the Lakers best player right now is LeBron James. But that's a four year deal. I don't think LeBron's playing four more years. And if Anthony Davis and JJ don't match, that means either Anthony Davis requested trade down the road or JJ Redick inevitably gets fired.

Hilariously, JJ Redick left Anthony Davis, all of his all NBA defense teams this year. So that'll make that'll make for an interesting first question. I would imagine one of the first questions that he'll probably get in that press are like, hey, what was going on there? So I think that'll that'll there were some some some concerns I've heard. There were some whispers that there were some players kind of wondering, like, are we sure, like, you know, and there are some concerns that JJ will basically.

I know people say there's whispers about that. There's really only two players in the Lakers roster that matter. So LeBron's good with that means Anthony Davis isn't maybe necessarily all good with this hire.

Yeah, I will neither confirm nor deny. But but yes, certainly, you know, with with AD, I think, and basically any player, right? Like if if if a coach is hired who is going to be seen as merely an extension of, you know, a teammate of yours, that's going to make it kind of awkward. And I think any player would be kind of iffy about that working relationship going in.

But I don't I'm also not told that it's anything that can't be figured out. And I'm told that that Davis is going into this with it with an open mind. He is very much a he's very competitive. And he actually has kind of started to find his voice a little bit in the Lakers organization. But at the end of the day, if the if the coach puts out the work commensurate with being an NBA head coach on a team or for a team that has title aspirations, you're going to get along just fine with Anthony Davis. And frankly, that was the concern that he had with with Darwin. He didn't think that Darwin was organized enough. He didn't think that that the Lakers had enough organization going into their game plans coming from the head coach and the coaching staff.

And he wants to you know, he that's that's all he frankly cares about. Have you heard anything on the staff? You know, I know Rhonda was thrown out there a while ago, I guess. Like, is there are there any names emerging here on the staff? Well, so the Lakers have always hoped for James Borrego to, you know, because that is somebody who he really believes in. But I'm it seems as if Borrego is going to wind up the coach of the Cavs or the court coach of the Pistons. He's going to take one of those two gigs. They've also kind of had their eye on Kenny Atkinson. But again, Atkinson is going to be up for those two gigs as well. It's going to be kind of tough to hire somebody away from a head coaching opportunity. And then, you know, the other names that have come up, Sam Cassell. Well, he's about to get a promotion because Charlie Charles Lee is going to Charlotte coming off of the championship. So are you like is Sam Cassell in any better a spot as J.J. Reddick's number two than he would be as Joe Missoula's number two in Boston coming off of a championship? Probably not. So I don't think the only way.

Yes. Is if J.J. Reddick got fired and they need someone to take over, you guys like Missoula is not going anywhere, you would think, right? Hey, game. Game theory really matters.

If you know how to play the game, play the game. So maybe maybe that would be the selling point. I don't think the Lakers would make that a selling point to Sam Cassell, but that could be something that he could factor into the math. I don't think Joe Missoula is going anywhere, that's for sure. And then, you know, Jared Dudley is another person that the Lakers have interest in. The the Mavs, I'm told, though, have tremendous interest interest in keeping Dudley around and Dudley really likes it there in Dallas.

So you have that going against you a little bit there, a name that I've kind of circled at the beginning of this. Luke Walton brought in Miles Simon to the organization, and it's kind of rare that a head coach would out or an assistant coach would outlast a head coach. And that's exactly what Simon did. He was there for Luke Walton. Walton gets fired. Simon helps them with their draft workouts and and the Lakers just wind up keeping him on Frank Vogel's staff. And then Vogel was such a fan of Simon that Vogel actually brought Simon to Phoenix with him.

I'm told that there is some mutual interest there. So that could be a name that pops up. And you mentioned Rajon Rondo. I know LeBron and AD especially would be really happy to have Rondo's voice back in that locker room. And then in terms of like a coach on the court, I really think Chris Paul is going to be a Laker.

That just seems to be where where where these things are heading, where it just makes a whole bunch of sense. He played with JJ Riddick on the Clippers. He has a great relationship with LeBron. He's going to get waived by the Golden State Warriors as they try to trim from their bloated luxury tax expectations.

And so I just think if if Chris Paul is made a free agent and the Lakers have the opportunity to get him in there on a veteran's minimum contract, which is probably what he can expect at this stage of his career, having that kind of coach on the court makes a whole bunch of sense for a coach as inexperienced as Riddick. But last thing I'll ask you in about like a minute and a half left with Anthony Erwin, you said Borrego. That's the guy AD wanted. Is that right?

Yeah, I for lack of a better term, like if if if if. So why not hire him then? Is it just because LeBron's voice is still more important than Anthony Davis's?

That's one version of the events. The thing there is that like Borrego just isn't very inspiring and the Lakers love themselves a story. Everything that they do has to be be, you know, tied back to some previous Lakers lore. They were getting ready to draft Kobe Buffkin last year, right? Like it's just everything that they do.

They wanted to be able to push headlines. And James Borrego, like it just doesn't do it for you in the same way that J.J. Riddick, J.J. Riddick is going to be a talking point for the next 48 hours while the Celtics go out on their parade. The basketball world is going to be talking about whether or not this is going to work. And that's the kind of stuff that the Lakers seem to care about right or wrong.

That's just the kind of thing that they seem to care about. He's Anthony Irwin. We always appreciate when he joins us on the Infinity Sports Network. Anthony, thanks so much. Enjoy it. All right. Anytime.

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For trusted protection, trust Pampers, the number one pediatrician recommended brand. But there's guys that have information and there are guys that know things and then you interview them and you could kind of connect the dots and they basically put the ball on the tee. Now there will be some people that do the interviews that won't follow up and won't listen and they have all their questions like scripted down what they're going to write and they're like a robot. But when I heard him say what he said, my follow up was basically like, well, there's only two players that opinions matter in that organization. And it's LeBron and it's Anthony Davis. We know LeBron is all for this hire with, with, uh, with JJ Reddick, but clearly Anthony Davis needs to warm up to it. And you need to see JJ Reddick, uh, really make a connection with him. Cause it doesn't seem Samter that Anthony Davis right now is, is whatsoever thrilled with this concept that JJ Reddick become the coach. And it would be so funny if for what Anthony Irwin said that the reason is because JJ Reddick left them off the all defensive teams and Anthony Davis is like, you know what?

Screw you. You're not going to be my coach. If you don't think I'm a good defensive player, I will say I thought that was a little tongue in cheek. Maybe, but like you never know these NBA stars are very sensitive if it's true. And we can check very easily that if JJ Reddick did leave Anthony Davis off of his all defensive teams. I think that's true. I don't think Anthony Davis is losing sleep over JJ. Anthony Irwin may have said it tongue in cheek, but I'm just saying what if it's true?

Wasn't Anthony Davis complaining how he's not the defensive player of the year? You know what? I think that is true. I take that back.

Forget everything I just said in the last 45 seconds. It could have been said tongue in cheek by Anthony Irwin, but if it is true that JJ Reddick has left them off the teams, that could be something that Anthony Davis says, you know, I don't want this guy coaching me if he doesn't think I'm a good defensive player. Yeah, makes him.

I can't. I was going to say Anthony Davis is raising a brow to this high. There's the the lame joke of the day. The one and only. I was about to say it seems like Anthony Davis is raising an eyebrow to this, and I'm like, oh, he really only has one to raise, literally. He's raising a unibrow.

Yeah, the brow is being raised here with this higher. But like, here's the better question. Lebron's guy is JJ Reddick.

We know that. Anthony Davis, I guess from what Anthony Irwin was inferring, his preference would have been James Borrego out of the potential candidates. So I'll ask you this, Mike, should the Lakers have hired James Borrego and say that, OK, this is now Anthony Davis's team, or should they have made the higher with JJ Reddick, knowing that there's a risk that JJ and Anthony Davis may not eventually mesh and see unibrow to eyebrows?

I don't think that's why you make the higher specifically. Specifically, I think honestly, like if you have to choose between Borrego and JJ, I probably go with JJ just because, like, yes, Borrego is probably a very good coach and he's been a head coach, but it wasn't like he was a successful head coach. As in the Hornets, though. Sure, but like I could be a head coach of a team like Dave Shepherd, maybe, and I would suck at it and then someone would say, well, he has experience. Yeah, but that experience sucked.

And I get it. It was a bad team and a bad situation. So I'm not blaming Borrego for he's clearly a very good basketball coach. But like, if I'm the Lakers and have a choice between JJ and Borrego, it's six of one, half dozen of the other. And if LeBron is saying, listen, let's go for one last run together, we'll go with JJ. If it doesn't work out, you get rid of JJ. It's a four year deal.

It's not going to kill you if you get rid of him after a year or two. And then Anthony Davis will be there for another four or five years. And then, boom, you bring in AD's guy.

JJ is a holdover coach until LeBron is out of the organization. Unless he's really good. Exactly.

Exactly. You know what? I actually like that you brought up Shep's name.

Well, let's see if we can get Shep on in the next segment. I want to ask him two questions about this hire, because even as much as we'll poke fun at David Sheperd, he does know a lot about basketball. And he is a guy that was claiming he could do a better job than Darvin' Ham. So Darvin' Ham had a lot of experience. JJ Reddick has zero coaching experience, outside of like maybe AU or something like that. Shep has more coaching experience.

I mean, with all those like little league and middle school. That's not actually a real coaching experience. I mean, it's experience on the sideline with a whistle. It's with a whistle on the sideline, coaching young men into playing basketball. JJ Reddick, I don't know if he's on that.

So what? Because I coached a few basketball games when I was a summer camp counselor and won a championship. I am more qualified than JJ Reddick. If JJ Reddick has not done any camps or coached any kids on any level, then yes.

I'm sure he's probably coached his kid in some capacity. Oh, we'll see. We'll have to find him.

Yeah. Well, let's see if we get Shep on in the next segment. I don't know what Shep's doing today.

He may be sleeping. You know, that's a tough, tough get for us. You know, we've had a lot of big names on this show. I don't know if we can get David Sheperd. I'll call Lance Leipold and see if he has Shep's number. Yeah, Lance will be like, who?

It is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. That's how you know I'm off tomorrow and I'm getting ready to enjoy a long weekend. But I want to torture myself with some Shep right before I go off to enjoy the extended weekend with me taking the day off tomorrow.

All right. Maybe David Sheperd is going to join us on the other side. We'll see. We will see if we could book the good Sheperd. If not, he's acting like the bad Sheperd.

And you don't want to be the bad Sheperd, you want to be the good Sheperd. Whatever you love, hear it right here on TuneIn. Go to TuneIn.com or download the TuneIn app to start listening. Start your summer road trip at Midas and get up to $30 off your next repair service. Plus, get a free Closer Look vehicle check to make sure you're road trip ready. So if you need a brake service and alignment check or TuneUp, hit up Midas for up to $30 off.

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