Stotts, Jackson interviewed for coaching job
The Lakers interviewed former Portland Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts for the team’s head coaching job on Friday, and they also interviewed former Golden State Warriors coach and current broadcaster Mark Jackson this week, according to separate reports by ESPN and The Athletic.
The Lakers have been taking their time looking for a replacement for Frank Vogel, who was fired last month after the team finished the season with a 3349 record. Stotts and Jackson are the only candidates known to have interviewed for the job so far, though the team has requested permission to interview Milwaukee Bucks assistant Darvin Ham and Toronto Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin, neither of whom has head coaching experience.
Several active head coaches have been reported to be of interest, including Utah’s Quin Snyder, Philadelphia’s Doc Rivers and Toronto’s Nick Nurse, but there is no clear timeline as to how long the process will take. Rivers is still coaching the 76ers in the playoffs and Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri this week laughed off the idea that the Lakers or any other team could get the organization to surrender Nurse, who led Toronto to the 2019 NBA title.
Stotts is known for his offensive creativity and an ability to build relationships with his star players. Before his dismissal in 2021, Stotts had guided the Blazers to the Western Conference playoffs in his last eight seasons on the job, including two trips to the conference semifinals and an appearance in the 2019 conference finals.
Stotts left Portland as the second-winningest coach in franchise history, including a 402-318 record in his nine seasons as Blazers coach. He had brief stops with Atlanta (2003 and 2004) and Milwaukee (2006 and 2007) where he had four sub-.500 seasons.
The Lakers were first linked to Jackson at the beginning of the offseason when it was reported that four-time league MVP LeBron James had interest in him getting the job.
Jackson has since become a finalist for the Sacramento Kings job and is likely still a longshot to land the Lakers job.
Jackson has been out of coaching since 2014, having served as an analyst for ESPN since then. While he has expressed a desire to return to coaching and has been mentioned for assorted jobs in recent years, this offseason seems like the year he might finally get back on a sideline.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Lakers so far have been interviewing coaches in waves of one or two at a time, eschewing the traditional format of interviewing several candidates prior to paring down the list for follow-up interviews.
Lakers GM Rob Pelinka is leading the search, but there is a committee in place to vet the candidates. Beyond controlling owner Jeanie Buss and Pelinka, advisor Kurt Rambis and former Lakers coach Phil Jackson are reportedly a significant part of those conversations. One of the few coaching qualities that Pelinka specifically cited after dismissing Vogel was a strong locker room presence.
“We want a strong voice that’s able to inspire the players to play at the highest level of competition every night,” Pelinka said. “And I think that’s going to be one of the resounding qualities that we look for in terms of holding everybody from the top player on our team to the 15th man to a degree of accountability.”
The Lakers have some challenges in getting a favored coach: Several of Vogel’s assistants remain under contract and could be in the mix to be on next season’s staff; there is uncertainty clouding the future of Russell Westbrook,; Vogel’s firing, when he was reported to be dismissed some 12 hours before he officially heard it from the front office, was botched.