A deep dive into new Lakers assistant coach Lindsey Harding
The Lakers have reportedly hired Lindsey Harding, a coach with a unique coaching history, including being named G League Coach of the Year. Let’s look at her career on the sidelines.
The Los Angeles Lakers continue to build their head coaching staff around new head coach JJ Redick, who, if you haven’t heard, has no professional coaching experience. The Lakers have already hired experienced, former head coaches in Scotty Brooks, most known for his time coaching the Thunder, and Nate McMillan, most known for coaching the Hawks and Pacers.
The Lakers' most recent hire is Lindsay Harding, who is cut from a very different cloth from those two. Although also a former head coach, she comes over from the G League after a very impressive season with the Stockton Kings. Her team had a dominant regular season but lost in the conference finals. The team’s success led to her being named the G-League Coach of the Year.
Her hiring may seem out of the blue on the surface, but once you understand her background, particularly with Redick, it becomes all the more sensible. Let's take a closer look.
Harding adds yet another experienced voice around Redick but also a different voice from Brooks and McMillan. As a recent player and a G-league coach, she will provide a different lens regarding coaching dynamics, understanding the personal development and journey of players and how to communicate with them.
She is yet another key piece of a puzzle that the Lakers hope they can solve soon.
Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT has a doctorate in physical therapy from Northern Arizona University, and runs his own in-person and online sports medicine and performance business, 3CB Performance, in West LA and Valencia, CA in which he further combines his movement expertise and fitness training. Prior to entering into the physiotherapy field,
Brar graduated from Cal-Berkeley in Business Administration and spent multiple years in the corporate marketing and strategy field, culminating in managing his own business unit in New York City and being a direct liaison for client management. Brar is additionally training at UCLA’s mindful awareness research center (MARC), has a background in youth basketball coaching and analyzes the Lakers from a medical, skills, and leadership/organizational culture perspective for Silver Screen and Roll and on his own YouTube Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at @3cbPerformance.