NBA insider says JJ Redick is a 'serious candidate' for this head-coaching job
The Charlotte Hornets are entering a new era, with new majority owners Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall along with new president of basketball operations Jeff Peterson working to hire their first head coach together.
The team has interviewed many potential replacements for Steve Clifford since he announced he'd step down at the end of the season and may have found an unexpected answer: JJ Redick.
News broke on Monday that Charlotte planned to interview Redick. On Wednesday morning, NBA insider Shams Charania of The Athletic told the "Run It Back" podcast that Redick is a "serious candidate" for the position.
"JJ Redick has interviewed for the Charlotte Hornets head coaching job, and I'm told he's a serious candidate," Charania said. "They've had a deep coaching search already with a bunch of assistants around the league. But JJ Redick has a strong desire to move into coaching, and if it isn't Charlotte there could be more interviews for him in this cycle."
Redick has the basketball pedigree thanks to his 15 years in the NBA and has a connection to North Carolina thanks to his time at Duke. He's shown he has a great mind for basketball in his role as an NBA analyst at ESPN and on his various podcasts.
But for a team hoping to make it back to the playoffs for the first time since 2016, he would be an incredibly risky hire.
Redick has no high-level coaching experience, and despite excelling in the leadership role he took on as a veteran, hasn't had to balance managing powerful personalities with the many other duties of being a head coach.
When Steve Nash (the most recent former player to become a head coach with no previous experience) joined the Brooklyn Nets in 2020, he got the keys to a team featuring Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and eventually James Harden.
Nash was out seven games into the 2022-23 season, posting an overall record of 94-67 and failing to make it past the Eastern Conference semis. While those Nets were a circus and many of their issues shouldn't fall squarely on Nash's shoulders, it does show how hard it is for anyone to simply jump to the top of the profession.
Charlotte has a young core headlined by LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller, and it has the third-best odds at the first pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.
The organization could benefit from a coach who is closer in age to the team's most important players, but they also need someone with experience developing players to maximize the talent on the roster.
This is a hire the Hornets need to get right, and Redick could simply be too risky.
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