Lakers hire Chris Jent to be Darvin Ham’s top assistant coach
Shortly after assistant coach Quinton Crawford left the Los Angeles Lakers to join Jason Kidd’s staff on the Dallas Mavericks, new head coach Darvin Ham is starting to round out his coaching staff.
He has brought on board Chris Jent to be his top assistant, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Jent has mostly been an assistant coach in the NBA, save for a short stint as the interim head coach of the Orlando Magic in 2005 after Johnny Davis was fired.
Jent has been an assistant for several teams going back to the 2003-04 season, but most notably, he was the director of player development for the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2006 to 2011, which means he has experience dealing with LeBron James.
Jent also spent a year as an assistant with Ham on Mike Budenholzer’s staff with the Atlanta Hawks in 2018.
The Lakers are hiring Atlanta Hawks assistant Chris Jent to become the top assistant coach, sources tell ESPN. New coach Darvin Ham recruited Jent over the past week to lead his staff. Jent has a strong history with LeBron James from early Cleveland years.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 18, 2022
The Lakers’ coaching staff already includes Phil Handy, a holdover from Frank Vogel’s crew. Handy is considered perhaps the best player development coach in the NBA, and he had also previously coached James from 2015 to 2018 on the Cavs.
In addition, former NBA player Rasheed Wallace, who was a teammate of Ham’s on the 2004 NBA champion Detroit Pistons, is a candidate to join the Lakers’ staff.
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