The Los Angeles Lakers' head coaching position hasn't been open very long, but top candidates are already beginning to merge with in-house assistants Brian Shaw and Chuck Person along with Houston Rockets castoff Rick Adelman.
Shaw has long been rumored to be a candidate while Person -- a former NBA player who joined Phil Jackson's bench staff last season after previously being an assistant with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers and Sacramento Kings -- seems to have become a hot up-and-coming candidate for the upcoming offseason as SI.com's Sam Amick reports that he's also a candidate to fill the Golden State Warriors and Indiana Pacers head coaching vacancies.
Other possibilities included in a report from ESPN's Marc Stein on Thursday are current broadcaster Jeff Van Gundy and former Los Angeles Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy.
"We'd like to be deliberate," Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said in the SI story. "In Los Angeles, typically we hire coaches and they stick with us for a long time, and hopefully win championships. So we'll take our time in making a decision."
Among the candidates that apparently won't be deliberated about during the decision-making process, according to Amick, are former Lakers assistants Kurt Rambis (current head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves) and Byron Scott of the Cleveland Cavaliers.