After J.B. Bickerstaff was fired by the Memphis Grizzlies it was unlikely he would be a head coach next season. He is now set for another interview as he is meeting with the Lakers on Friday.
J.B. Bickerstaff continues to get consideration for coaching jobs around the league. Despite being fired from the Memphis Grizzlies after the season he has already been discussed as a candidate elsewhere after interviewing with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and now set to be interviewed by the Lakers.
Lakers to interview J.B. Bickerstaff for coaching position https://t.co/vWJVcQfRGO
— Brad Turner (@BA_Turner) May 10, 2019
His time with the Grizzlies wasn’t a success, but he certainly didn’t have much of a chance to succeed. They didn’t have a very good roster, but he was still able to get them off to a good start to the season. They would eventually fall off in a big way, but his coaching was a part of their early season success.
Memphis has gone through some big changes during his tenure which included trading away Marc Gasol to Toronto during the season. They brought back guys such as Delon Wright and Jonas Valanciunas who played some of the best ball of their career during their time with him as the coach.
He did struggle at times with his rotations as he preferred some of the veterans such as Shelvin Mack and JaMychal Green at times, but overall he did a good job in that department. His biggest success might be how well Jaren Jackson Jr. played during his rookie season. He had some struggles, but he gave him a chance to shine in a big way which he wasn’t able to in college.
Bickerstaff is a solid coach, but his fit with the Lakers might be a bit odd. His ability to develop the young guys would be a fun fit, but I don’t think that’s the goal anymore. They have Lebron James on their roster and they’re going to try to win and they need a good coach capable of helping them do that right away.
The expectation for them was that they were going to hire Tyronn Lue, but they were unable to agree to a deal which has opened this spot up again. Other candidates such as Frank Vogel are likely the favorite, but with J.B. Bickerstaff being interviewed for another job shows how highly he is thought of around the league despite his record with the Grizzlies.
While Bickerstaff in LA would be fun to see the Grizzlies still need to hire a head coach of their own. They have interviewed a few coaches, but they still seem to be in the early stages of their search. While Memphis continues their own coaching search we’ll glad to see Bickerstaff getting the respect that he deserves.