Report: Lakers expected to begin head coach interviews this week

After a long wait, the Lakers are reportedly going to begin the interview process for their next head coach this week.

The Lakers’ head coaching search has been a very slow one. Over a week after Darvin Ham was fired, there have been no substantial developments in hiring a new head coach.

However, that could soon be changing.

Coinciding with the start of the NBA Draft Combine, the Lakers could also begin head coach interviews at last, as reported by Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports on Sunday.

Many of the league’s decision-makers are still descending upon Chicago, where the NBA Draft combine will continue throughout the week. There will be countless clandestine meetings between the NBA’s power brokers, leaving plenty of trade chatter and early free agency talk to buzz about the stands at Wintrust Arena. The Lakers have left coaching industry figures under the impression Los Angeles plans to conduct interviews for the franchise’s head coach this week as well. The league’s silly season is well underway.

While Ty Lue seems to remain the team’s top target, basically all other candidates are not in a head coaching position and could be interviewed.

Certainly, if the Lakers do conduct interviews this week, it seems very likely JJ Redick will be one of the first ones, most likely. With all the NBA playoff games being on TNT on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, it would seemingly offer a window where the Lakers could interview him. The likes of Micah Nori of the Wolves and David Adelman of the Nuggets could both be interviewed on the days off between the Nuggets and Wolves series as well this week.

The beginning of interviews could also give some insight into new candidates that perhaps haven’t been rumored and into the type of candidates the team will be targeting. With multiple reports stating they want an experienced candidate, maybe some new names will emerge as well.

With the start of interviews, that will also start the clock for the team to hire a coach. While there is no deadline, this does start the process.

Finally, though, we’re going to move forward with this search and finally get some ideas of what this team is looking for.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.