Lakers lose another assistant coach, Rasheed Wallace still candidate for staff

One of the few coaches retained by Darvin Ham from the previous staff looks set to depart to Dallas. Assistant Quinton Crawford, who coached the Lakers’ Summer League team last year, will reportedly be joining Jason Kidd and the Mavericks, according to multiple reports.

Crawford was one of three coaches, along with Phil Handy and Jon Pastorek, that Ham kept from Frank Vogel’s coaching staff. That appears to be dwindling down to just two, though.

So far, no other assistants have been confirmed for Ham’s new staff. Rasheed Wallace was a name linked to the job, but Ham pushed back on the notion that he had been hired at his introductory press conference. Brad Turner of the LA Times also reported that Sheed was still a candidate for a position on staff, along with Hawks assistant Chris Jent.

Also, in regards to Sheed, in an interview on the Rich Eisen Show yesterday, Ham stopped short of saying he’d be on the staff, but gave a not-so-subtle wink-wink, nudge-nudge that it’d be happening.

Jent, meanwhile, is a long-time assistant coach across college, the G League and the NBA. He had a 10-year basketball playing career that featured stops in the NBA, the now-defunct Continental Basketball Association, Australia and multiple European countries.

Once his athletic career expired, Jent first became a coach with the Sixers in 2003. He’s had stops in Orlando, Cleveland, Sacramento and presently Atlanta in the NBA with two tenures at Ohio State as an assistant and one season as the head coach of the G League’s Bakersfield Jam, the Pistons’ affiliate.

As is often the case, it’s hard to get the specifics about what an assistant coach does, but Jent has been credited with helping John Collins in Atlanta and his outside jumper.

Jent’s familiarity with LeBron is interesting, and would seemingly make him a strong candidate for the job. For now, it remains a wait-and-see approach as Ham looks to fill out his staff while summer workouts continue.

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