Lakers News: LA Loses Out on All-Star-Turned-Top Assistant Coach

LA's extended head coaching search is costing it some talented options.

Apr 28, 2023; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka looks on prior to game six of the 2023 NBA playoffs against the Memphis Grizzlies at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Lakers have lost out on yet another top-tier assistant coach — this one a former Lakers player, to boot.

After letting rumored prospect Charles Lee sign on with the Charlotte Hornets as their new head coach, L.A. has now potentially lost out on another elite assistant coach who may have been ready for a promotion.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN announced Wednesday that former two-time All-Star swingman Caron Butler, who was briefly a Laker from 2004-05 after being acquired in the deal that sent Shaquille O'Neal to the Miami Heat, has inked a new four-season deal to stay with the Heat, according to his lawyer Raymond Brothers. Butler has served as been an assistant coach on Erik Spoelstra's staff since the 2020 season.

Butler, who was drafted by the Heat in 2002 with the No. 10 pick out of the University of Connecticut and played in South Beach for two seasons, has been a critical contributor to the bench of a club that has made two Eastern Conference Finals and one NBA Finals berth.

Though the Heat has received occasional derision for its emphasis on a unique "culture" of winning, toughness and accountability, there really has seemed to be something to that notion. Miami has enjoyed unique success under Spoelstra and before him Pat Riley and Stan Van Gundy, spanning a variety of basketball eras and superstars. The club finds itself in a unique position this summer, with plenty of draft equity and some movable contracts, with which it could perhaps obtain an All-Star. There have also been rumors that the team is open to moving on from its aging best player, All-Star wing Jimmy Butler.

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