The former Washington Wizards head coach will be one of the top coaches around Lakers head coach JJ Redick, who has never coached before at the professional level.
There isn’t much news going on this Independence Day with the Washington Wizards. So I felt like I should write something about former personnel if I could. In this case, it’s about former head coach Scott Brooks, who led them from 2016-21. Brooks is also the last Wizards head coach to lead the team to a playoff appearance, which was in 2021.
Brooks, who is nominally still a lead assistant coach for the Portland Trail Blazers, is reportedly moving the Los Angeles Lakers to be on new head coach JJ Redick’s staff. In addition, former Atlanta Hawks/Portland Trail Blazers/Indiana Pacers/the team now known as the Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Nate McMillan will also be on the staff.
I won’t opine too much on the Lakers’ overall situation or the potential power struggle between Brooks and McMillan if Redick is found to be a poor fit for the Lakers. But I think making a move to LA makes sense for Brooks at this time. Here’s why.
Brooks comes from California, though he was raised in the central part of state. He spent his last two years of college basketball playing at UC Irvine, where Brooks is one of the greats of Anteaters men’s basketball. In fact his number is retired at UCI. For those of you east coasters, Irvine is about an hour drive south of Los Angeles, so I’d imagine this move will make him feel more at home.
On the basketball end, Brooks has worked with a number of superstar players as a head coach, primarily before his time with the Wizards. He had Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook AND James Harden simultaneously on the same roster with the Oklahoma City Thunder, so that should translate into how relationship building happens with the Lakers’ stars like Anthony Davis and LeBron James, Sr. And perhaps how could he help let LeBron “Bronny” James, Jr. grow into his own?
So, in the end, the combination of LA being close to his stomping grounds in college as well as his past experience with superstar players should help make Brooks a great asset to Redick’s staff. And of course, if things don’t work out with Redick (since I know at least some of you DMV’ers still view him as a snobby superstar player from Duke), you never know if Brooks gets to be a head coach in his home state.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.