Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka almost sounded desperate in explaining a new approach to team development, starting with a coach who has no experience.
The Lakers are in search of assistant coaches — and coders.
Really.
JJ Redick’s appointment as head coach was more out of the box than anyone thought.
General manager Rob Pelinka opened Redick’s introductory news conference on Monday by emphasizing the importance of “innovation” and being “forward thinking.”
Asked later if the Lakers would expand their analytics and scouting departments to assist Redick in modernizing the franchise, Pelinka replied, “JJ and I have had some really robust conversations around innovation and sort even gamifying player development. If you think about a 20-year-old basketball player today and maybe a 20-year-old basketball player 10, 15, 20 years ago, the [mediums] of learning are completely different.”
Pelinka continued, “Kids and athletes are learning in new and innovative ways. So we’ve talked about how do we translate coach Redick’s offensive system to an app-based or a phone-based deliverable where players can be buying into a philosophy and learning it in a way that meets today’s young player? And I think innovation has to be at the core of that. We have a vision of hiring out his support staff in sort of this tech-bullpen way of getting innovative minds to help bring his basketball strategy and bring his basketball philosophy to life in a way our players can grasp it, learn it and actually grow their basketball IQ.
