Rob Pelinka plans to meet with Monty Williams again soon

The Los Angeles Lakers conducted their first interview for the vacant head coach position on Wednesday with Philadelphia 76ers assistant Monty Williams, who is considered to be one of the top candidates for the job, along with former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue, who general manager Rob Pelinka will meet with on Friday.

While there has been a surprising amount of silence on how Williams’ first interview went, it’s safe to assume it went well considering both sides are expected to meet again some time soon, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:

There is an expectation on both sides that Pelinka will have a second visit with the franchise’s other leading candidate -- Philadelphia 76ers assistant Monty Williams, league sources said. Pelinka met with Williams on Tuesday in Philadelphia, and the conversation is expected to continue in the near future. The Sixers are leading the Brooklyn Nets 2-1 in a best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series.

For all that has been made about the dysfunction in the Lakers front office, they deserve a ton of credit for doing their due diligence with their head coaching search this time around. If you recall back to 2016, the front office interviewed just two candidates for the position: San Antonio Spurs assistant Ettore Messina and Luke Walton. After speaking with Walton, they reportedly cancelled the other interviews they had lined up.

Still, the way in which the Lakers have conducted interviews thus far leaves room from one to wonder what the plan is with the team’s basketball operations department going forward. Is Pelinka going to be the one making all of the big decisions or is there really some big name, rival executive signing off on all of the moves they’re making behind the scenes?

As it stands, no one’s quite sure, so hopefully those questions are answered sooner rather than later. Whatever the case is, though, it sounds like Williams has a real shot at the job. If and when he gets it, we can start talking a lot more about his resume, qualifications and what he might bring to the team.

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