The Los Angeles Lakers have finalized new head coach JJ Redick’s staff, partnering the rookie head coach with two high-profile and accomplished mentors.
Redick’s bench for the 2024-25 NBA campaign will feature one coach with nearly two decades of head coach experience and another who led his team to the NBA Finals and was once named NBA Coach of the Year.
Former Atlanta Hawks head coach Nate McMillan will join Redick’s staff for the upcoming season, the team confirmed Monday. McMillan has been the head coach of four NBA franchises, the Hawks, Indiana Pacers, Portland Trail Blazers and the Seattle SuperSonics. McMillan has a career winning percentage of .532 as a head coach with 760 wins against 668 losses.
McMillan is currently 18th all-time in career victories by a head coach, the Lakers said. He’s also a two-time Olympic gold medal-winner, having been a member of the U.S.A. Basketball coaching staff in 2008 and 2012.
McMillan assumed head coaching responsibilities for Seattle, Indiana and Atlanta after initially serving as the team’s top assistant.
McMillan will be joined on Redick’s staff by another well-known former head coach in Scott Brooks, who led the upstart Oklahoma City Thunder to an NBA Finals appearance in 2012 and was named NBA Coach of the Year after a 50-win season in 2009-10.
Brooks has spent the past three seasons as an assistant on Chauncey Billups’ staff in Portland and previously served as head coach of the Washington Wizards from 2016 to 2021.
The California native has a career coaching record of 521-414 (.557), including three 50-win seasons and one 60-win season. The former 10-year NBA player is also a UC-Irvine Hall-of-Famer and won an NBA Title as a member of the Houston Rockets in 1994.
McMillan and Brooks will be accompanied in the trenches by Bob Beyer, a 17-year coaching veteran who most recently served as an assistant coach with the Charlotte Hornets; Greg St. Jean, who was a player development coach in L.A. from 2019 through 2021 before being named an assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks and later the Phoenix Suns; Lindsey Harding, former head coach of the Stockton Kings in the NBA G-League and the first female assistant coach in Lakers history; and Beau Levesque, who spent the previous four seasons as a player development coach with the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Lakers also named Michael Wexler as the team’s new head video coordinator. Wexler previously held the same role for the Minnesota Lynx in the WNBA and was most recently a coaching associate for the Suns last season.
Redick was announced as the new head coach of the Lakers in June, departing from his role as an analyst and commentator with ESPN to take the reins of one of the world’s most valuable and well-known sports franchises.
The NBA sharpshooter-turned-media personality retired in 2021 after playing 15 seasons in the league. He’s spent most his time since then behind the microphone, including co-hosting a podcast with LeBron James — his new star player and the team’s most authoritative and influential voice.
Redick will take over for Darvin Ham, who was dismissed as Lakers head coach after two seasons and a 90-74 record, including one appearance in the Western Conference Finals in 2023.