The Los Angeles Lakers have been mostly quiet since hiring Frank Vogel as their head coach. One transaction they made almost immediately afterward was the hiring of Jason Kidd as one of Vogel’s assistant coaches.
While the team has not yet announced Kidd’s hiring, it was clear all along that having him join their coaching staff was a priority. That is even more evident now as The Athletic’s Shams Charania reports that Kidd was made the highest paid assistant coach in the league by the Lakers, although the exact figure is not reported.
Kidd originally was interviewed for the head coaching position and impressed the Lakers enough that they tried to force him onto Tyronn Lue’s staff before negotiations with Lue broke down. The team reportedly did not want to hire Kidd as a head coach due to his history of domestic violence.
While the Lakers’ willingness to pay top money for a coaching staff is promising given that it was a weakness during Luke Walton’s tenure, its unwillingness to do the same to hire Lue (by offering him a three-year contract instead of his requested five years) becomes even more curious.
Kidd did not have a great reputation as a coach before being hired by the Lakers but the team may have billed him as a key assistant to work with Lonzo Ball. Rumors of their hiring of Kidd to eventually replace Vogel if the latter is fired will also only grow stronger with the news of his contract statues.
