Tag: Phil Handy

Rui Hachimura and Jarred Vanderbilt are working with Phil Handy

Two of the Lakers’ most important complementary players are working hard to get ready for this coming NBA season.

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There are two months left until training camp for the 2023-24 NBA season begins, but those dedicated to their craft are already preparing.

For the Los Angeles Lakers, such preparation is more important than it is for many other teams, as they are thought to have a legitimate shot at winning the world championship.

While their chances of doing so rest largely on the play and health of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, forwards Rui Hachimura and Jarred Vanderbilt will also be key. In addition to their skills, they will allow the squad to keep James’ minutes down while taking pressure off Davis at both ends of the floor.

Hachimura and Vanderbilt were seen in Greece getting some work in with highly regarded Lakers player development coach Phil Handy.

The big key for Vanderbilt, who is an effective and versatile defender, will be improving his 3-point shooting to the point where, at the very least, he will not be a liability in that department. Meanwhile, Hachimura already got in work with Handy this past season and has credited the coach with helping him feel confident and comfortable.

Phil Handy says he will be with the Lakers for two more seasons

Despite speculation that he may leave to rejoin Frank Vogel with the Suns, Lakers player development coach Phil Handy is staying put.

The Los Angeles Lakers may be in win-now mode, but they’re also in position to develop young players with an eye on the future.

They have become considerably younger over the last several months. They jettisoned multiple players in their 30s in trades that have netted them Rui Hachimura, D’Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt, Malik Beasley and Mo Bamba, all of whom are 27 or younger.

This is where Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy comes in very, well, handy. Hachimura credited Handy with helping him feel comfortable with the Lakers and refine certain aspects of his game.

When former Lakers head coach Frank Vogel was hired by the Phoenix Suns recently, there was speculation Handy might join him. But Handy revealed he is actually under contract with L.A. for two more seasons, and he is staying with the Purple and Gold (h/t Lakers Nation).

Handy is considered perhaps the best player development coach in the NBA. As such, he is considered a very important part of Darvin Ham’s staff.

Woike: Player development coach Phil Handy could leave the Lakers

Could Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy he headed to the Suns to reunite with Frank Vogel?

Just a year after being unceremoniously fired by the Los Angeles Lakers, Frank Vogel appears headed to the Phoenix Suns. Both sides are reportedly completing a five-year deal for him to be their head coach.

It could turn out to be a good hire for the defensively challenged Suns. Vogel is known as a defensive guru who guided the Lakers to the 2020 NBA championship mainly because of their prowess on that end of the floor.

Vogel will have to assemble his staff for his new team, and, according to the Los Angeles Times’ Dan Woike, Lakers assistant Phil Handy could be heading to the desert to join him (h/t Lakers Daily).

Handy is widely regarded as the best player development coach in the NBA. If he leaves L.A., it would be a big loss for the Purple and Gold.

Rui Hachimura reminds Phil Handy of Kawhi Leonard

Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy feels Rui Hachimura has a skill set that is reminiscent of Clippers star Kawhi Leonard.

Just about everyone agrees that the Los Angeles Lakers acquired a gem in forward Rui Hachimura while giving up little to get him, surrendering Kendrick Nunn and three second-round draft picks.

The Japan native made a nice debut as a Laker on Wednesday night, scoring 12 points in about 22 minutes on 4-of-7 shooting. He flashed his ability to score one-on-one from the midrange area, ran the floor well, scored on the fast break and got to the free-throw line for six attempts.

He has the type of offensive skill set that may remind some people of Los Angeles Clippers star Kawhi Leonard. Obviously, Hachimura doesn’t have those skills at the same level as Leonard, but he can do many of the same things.

Apparently, that is what Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy thinks of his team’s new addition.

Handy is regarded as perhaps the best player development coach in the NBA, and he was seen working with Hachimura on his game on Tuesday. Specifically, the forward was putting in work on his midrange post-up game and 3-point shot from the corner.

Hachimura could have plenty of untapped potential, especially when it comes to his 3-point shooting and defense. He may never become a true star, but he will provide plenty of help for a Lakers team that has been starving for productive wings and forwards.

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Kobe Bryant was the reason Phil Handy became an NBA coach

Lakers player development coach Phil Handy talks about how the opportunity to work with Kobe Bryant got him into coaching.

In his younger years, Phil Handy tried his hand at playing pro basketball, but he didn’t quite make it.

After he was a standout at the University of Hawaii, he went undrafted in the 1995 NBA draft, and he failed to stick around in the league after a couple of preseason stints that year.

Handy then played briefly in the now-defunct Continental Basketball League and in multiple foreign leagues. Years later, he became a trainer, but when the Los Angeles Lakers came calling with an assistant coaching job, he wasn’t interested at the time in such a role.

However, the late great Kobe Bryant nudged Handy into a successful coaching career, and he admitted as much while on a recent episode of the “No Chill with Gilbert Arenas” podcast.

“I had no desire to be a coach. That was not part of my plan, to be a coach in the NBA so to speak. I just knew I wanted to try to impact the game of basketball on a global scale in terms of helping athletes become elite with their skill, that was my motivation.”

“In 2011 Mike Brown got hired by the Lakers, my motivation in the industry was I wanted to be able to train with some of the best players ever, so when Mike got that job, and the opportunity came for me to work with the Lakers, the only thing that really sold me on it, was to have the opportunity to stand next to Kobe, that was it. I wasn’t interested in necessarily coaching in the NBA, I wanted the opportunity to see if my skill set as a trainer was good enough to impact a guy like Kobe. That was my motivation and that was the only reason I took that job.”

Handy was fortunate enough to work with Bryant for two seasons, and since then he has grown into perhaps the best player development coach in the league.

He has also coached LeBron James, first as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ coaching staff, and now with the Lakers over the past three seasons.

It may be better to be lucky than good, but maximizing that luck is even better. Handy has certainly done so by elevating his craft.

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Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy gets contract extension

One of the most important members of the Lakers’ coaching staff will remain with the team beyond this coming season.

Although the Los Angeles Lakers have a new head coach in Darvin Ham, he has kept one important member of former coach Frank Vogel’s staff: Phil Handy.

Handy is a player development coach and is regarded as arguably the best such assistant in the NBA.

Now that the Lakers are suddenly a rather young squad, Handy’s presence and teaching will be more important than it has been in a while.

He had just one year remaining on his current contract, but now it has been revealed that he will be remaining with the Purple and Gold for a while, as he just received an extension.

Handy is going into his fourth season with L.A., and he is certainly familiar with LeBron James, as he was a part of the Cleveland Cavaliers coaching staff from 2013 to 2018.

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Phil Handy agrees to be on Darvin Ham’s Lakers coaching staff

New Lakers head coach Darvin Ham has apparently made a key hire for his new staff.

One of the big questions surrounding Darvin Ham becoming the new head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers has been who he would hire to be on his coaching staff.

He reportedly contacted Rasheed Wallace, with whom he won the 2004 NBA championship on the Detroit Pistons, and let go of three men who had been on previous head coach Frank Vogel’s staff.

But the good news so far is that he invited Phil Handy to stay on with his new regime, and Handy said yes.

Via Lakers Daily:

“Now, another update has been offered on the team’s evolving coaching staff. It sounds like Phil Handy will be staying with the team heading into next season.”

This will no doubt be good news for hard-core Lakers fans, as Handy is considered perhaps the best player development coach in the NBA.

Handy started his coaching career in the 2011 season with the Lakers the same year that Ham joined the team as an assistant.

Handy then moved on after two years to the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he had the good fortune of working with LeBron James.

During that time, he started an incredible run. He went to the NBA Finals four straight years with James and the Cavs, then got there a fifth straight time in 2019 when he joined the Toronto Raptors.

When Frank Vogel hired him to be on his Lakers staff for the 2019-20 campaign, Handy appeared in the championship series for an incredible sixth consecutive year while getting his third ring.

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