OKC Thunder: 5 dark horse head coach candidates

Phil Handy – Lakers assistant

There are certain people in the NBA who seem to have the Midas touch.  In the old school era, it seemed any team Robert Horry played on wound up needing a last-second shot, and ‘Big Shot Bob’ would rise to the challenge. In the modern era having Patrick McCaw on your team was like winning the lottery. He was on three consecutive title teams and I’m not sure his stretch takes a hit this season given he couldn’t play in the bubble due to injury.

As a coach, Phil Handy had a similar effect. Handy began his coaching career under Mike Brown as a player development coach on the Lakers. When Brown moved to the Cavaliers Handy followed. After four years with Cleveland, Handy joined the Raptors when Nick Nurse took over as head coach. This past season he returned to the Lakers.

Although Handy has held assistant coaching titles the move to the Lakers was about moving up to the front of the bench after serving as more of a second-tier assistant.

When it comes to his good fortune, players have all raved about his ability to help them find little tweaks to improve. Yet, he’s also a lucky charm as his teams have been to the finals in each of the last six seasons (and he’s won rings in three of those trips -once with the Cavaliers and each of the past two seasons).

In truth, Handy is more of a long shot to leave the Lakers now that he’s moved to the front of the bench. One team who’ll be regretting their decision is the Clippers because Handy was originally vying to move with Kahwi Leonard.