Lakers: 5 assistant coach candidates to hire under Darvin Ham

5. Richard Jefferson

This is definitely the biggest wild-card of the bunch as Richard Jefferson currently has a pretty good gig as an analyst with ESPN and it is unclear if he would leave that job to be an assistant coach on the Los Angeles Lakers.

That being said, when you think of former veteran players who have all the makings of being a good coach in the league, it is hard to think of many more candidates than Jefferson. We have already seen Jared Dudley get a coaching gig in this league after getting immense praise from LeBron James.

LeBron and Jefferson are good friends and Jefferson could also benefit from that LeBron James bump. Quite frankly, if Jefferson wanted a job in the league he could probably get an assistant job somewhere just with the good word of LeBron and Klutch Sports.

Jefferson spent 17 seasons in the league and saw just about everything a player could see. He won a championship with LeBron James but also played alongside greats like Jason Kidd and Tim Duncan, also getting a wide array of knowledge from Gregg Popovich.

Jefferson absolutely has the resume to be a coach in this league and he has a potentially perfect first job with the Los Angeles Lakers. It may come down to if he wants to turn down those ESPN dollars to get back into the game.