Los Angeles Lakers: Phil Handy was a good hire for the bench

The Los Angeles Lakers continued to fill out their coaching staff, adding Phil Handy, who is a good hire for the team.

The Los Angeles Lakers signed Phil Handy to join Frank Vogel’s staff on the bench. Handy has worked with the likes of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kobe Bryant and Kawhi Leonard in his coaching career and adds another experienced mind to the Lakers coaching staff.

Handy has been on the bench for five straight finals teams in the East, including four straight with the Cavaliers winning a championship in 2016, and then moving on to the Raptors and winning a championship last season. So his experience will prove to be a valuable asset on the bench as Los Angeles looks to create their identity on offense and defense with a talented staff.

The Lakers missed out on their main target, which was one of the best assistant coaches in basketball in Ron Adams. Although Handy isn’t the defensive mastermind like Adams is, he still is considered a very good assistant coach and should be considered a good signing by the Lakers to take him from Toronto.

Looking at the track record, you could look no further than 2016 to see the impact his voice has on players when Kyrie Irving credited Handy for his speech when Cleveland went down 2-0 in their series to Golden State.

Irving mentioned that Handy’s powerful speech lit a fire under Cleveland that ultimately led to them coming back from a 3-1 deficit to win their first title. Tyronn Lue also mentioned after the series how instrumental Handy was to the win.

The Undefeated actually reported that Handy has developed a reputation as one of the best skill development coaches in the NBA. This coincides with the major improvement we saw in Pascal Siakam last year, showing how much potential he has to be a superstar in this league.

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Having a good bench of coaches that have a mix of offense and defense is very crucial in the success of a team. The Lakers have good depth after spreading out their money instead of landing one big fish in Kawhi Leonard. Their balance of offense and defense will make them contenders as long as their two big guys stay healthy.

With a bench of Frank Vogel, Jason Kidd, Lionel Hollins and Phil Handy, the Lakers have a balance of offensive and defensive guys, that if it works right, will create a good game plan and establish an identity on both ends of the floor.

The Lakers goal was to get an experienced staff in to help lead LeBron James and Anthony Davis and they accomplished that feat.

The Lakers are entering an integral time for their franchise. LeBron James isn’t getting any younger and his itch to win another ring is there.

The Lakers now need to put it all together and stay healthy on the court, with their experience on the court and on the bench, they match up with the best of them.