Mike Bianchi: Stan Van Gundy not surprised JJ Redick has gone from Magic player to Lakers coach

Stan also thinks it’s sheer folly to believe Redick will fail simply because he’s never been a coach at any level. The fact of the matter is that some of today’s most respected NBA coaches — Steve Kerr, Jason Kidd, Doc Rivers — had never been an assistant or a college head coach when they got their first pro head-coaching job.

Let’s face it, some of coaching’s greatest success stories came out of nowhere. Stan became the greatest coach in Magic history only after Billy Donovan changed his mind and returned to the University of Florida after originally accepting the Magic job.

Pat Riley was a broadcaster for the Lakers in 1979 when Paul Westhead took over as their head coach after Jack McKinney nearly died in a bicycle accident. Westhead hired Riley as an assistant without coaching experience, and Riley became the Lakers’ head coach not even two years later when Magic Johnson essentially got Westhead fired.

Joe Mazzulla, the head coach of the world-champion Boston Celtics, is just 35 years old (four years younger than Redick) and was a little-known assistant two years ago who was named the interim head coach and then permanent head coach after Ime Udoka was let go for having an improper intimate relationship with a female staff member.

“There’s no tried-and-true formula for getting a head-coaching job in the NBA,” Stan said. “There are many different paths you can take. I think JJ will do a great job as long as the Lakers’ expectations are somewhat reasonable — something they haven’t been in a long time.”

It’s going to be fascinating to see whether Redick’s first head-coaching job is going to be a fairy tale or a cautionary tale.

For him to succeed amid the high drama of the Lakers, JJ is going to have to pull off his best Magic trick yet.

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