The Lakers are moving fast under Mark Walter, and the latest shift comes on JJ Redick’s bench. Zach Guthrie, fresh off a strong run leading the organization’s G League club, has been elevated into a bigger role with the big-league team.
According to Shams Charania of ESPN, Guthrie is now an assistant coach on Redick’s staff and also the Lakers’ new head of player development. He’ll slot in alongside Scott Brooks, Nate McMillan, Greg St. Jean, Lindsay Harding, Bob Beyer and Beau Levesque.
Guthrie’s promotion follows two years at the helm of South Bay, now the Coachella Valley Lakers, where he delivered a 26-10 regular season and guided the team to the Western Conference Finals. The 38-year-old has already built up plenty of NBA experience, too, with previous assistant coaching stops in Utah under Quin Snyder from 2016-2020, in Dallas under Rick Carlisle from 2020-2021 and in Washington under Rick Carlisle from 2021-2024 before taking over South Bay.
His G League work gave him a chance to help develop a group that included Drew Timme, Chris Manon, Kobe Bufkin and Arthur Kaluma, and now that development focus shifts to the Lakers’ next wave. Guthrie will be charged with helping rookie Cameron Carr and second-year forward Adou Thiero, while continuing to work with Manon and the two-way players AK Okereke and Peter Suder.
That player-development angle matters even more with the Lakers still rolling in Summer League. After four straight wins, Carr and company are in the semifinals and will meet the Golden State Warriors on Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center. Carr, Manon, Thiero and Kaluma have all stood out during the tournament, putting them one win from the championship game on Sunday.
If the Lakers get past Yaxel Lendeborg and the Warriors, who handed them their only loss in the California Classic, they’ll move on to face the winner of Cameron Boozer’s Memphis Grizzlies and Bruce Thornton’s Houston Rockets.
In Other News...
Lakers May Be Watching Another Ideal Wing Slip Away
Peyton Watsons rise in Denver this past season has put him squarely on the radar of teams looking for a long, switchable wing, and the Lakers are among the clubs that have taken notice. The appeal is obvious from their side: Watson fits the kind of two-way mold that tends to matter in the West, and as a restricted free agent he is the sort of player who can quickly become expensive to pry loose.
The problem is the path to getting him looks murky. Los Angeles does not have the draft capital to satisfy Denvers asking price in a sign-and-trade, and its recent move for Walker Kessler has only tightened the margins on any bigger swing. With limited trade flexibility and other teams, including Atlanta, also circling, the Lakers may end up watching another ideal wing get out of reach. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors May Have To Sacrifice More Than Expected For Bronny
LeBron James free agency decision is still hanging over the league, and the Warriors are reportedly one of the teams watching closely. If Golden State makes a real run at him, the ripple effect could reach the Lakers in a different way, because any move involving LeBron would naturally revive the conversation around Bronny James and whether Los Angeles would even consider dealing him.
The price on Bronny is still very much a moving target, but the Lakers are not expected to treat him like a throw-in if the situation gets serious. A trade built around a second-round pick and a roster-fitting player has been floated as the kind of framework that could get attention, though the asking price could shift if the whole thing becomes tied to LeBrons next stop. [Read more 🡒]
Lakers Just Let Another Crucial Defensive Answer Slip Away
The Lakers spent part of the offseason searching for more defensive bite, and Lu Dort looked like the kind of answer that could have changed the tone of the roster. His physical perimeter defense and ability to take on difficult assignments made him a natural fit for a team that has too often needed someone to absorb the toughest wing matchups. Los Angeles also had enough draft capital to stay in the conversation, which made the decision not to push harder feel like more than just a missed opportunity.
Instead, the Lakers went in another direction, adding Walker Kessler and signing Sandro Mamukelashvili while the Dort path disappeared from view. The larger issue is not simply one player leaving the board, but how many of these choices have stacked up for a team still trying to build a defense it can trust when the games tighten. [Read more 🡒]