A longtime NBA coach retired from Lakers coach JJ Redick’s staff, triggering shakeups.
Bob Beyer decided to call it a coaching career, which started for the 64-year-old when he became an assistant coach for Alfred University’s men’s basketball team in 1983 and ended after two seasons on Redick’s staff from 2024-26.
Beyer was an assistant coach in Orlando (2007-12) and New Orleans (2020-21) when Redick played for the Magic (2006-13) and Pelicans (2019-21).
“He’s been a very important person in my NBA life and a very important friend,” Redick said after the Lakers’ training camp practice Tuesday. “He’s someone I explicitly trust and believe in. He’s an incredible teacher. He was an incredible mentor for a lot of our young coaches and an incredible example.”
Redick said Beyer’s retirement came as a surprise since Beyer shared the news around mid-August.
“I understood the reasons why,” Redick said. “I didn’t try to talk him out of it. He leaves on great terms with the Lakers. What he did say to me was like, ‘I was basically retired, and then you asked me to do this with you, and I did it for two years, and now I’m ready to retire.’ But he’s a legend. We all love him. We’re so appreciative of everything you did for us.”
After coaching in college for 20 years, Beyer took his first NBA assistant coaching job with the Raptors in 2003-04. He was an assistant coach at Dayton in 2005-07 before coming back to the NBA with the Magic in 2007, staying in the NBA coaching ranks for 19 consecutive years before retiring.
With Beyer’s retirement, assistant coach Greg St. Jean has been promoted to a front-of-bench role.
Michael Wexler was elevated to assistant coach after being the head video coordinator the last two seasons on Redick’s staff.
Zach Guthrie was also promoted from the South Bay Lakers (now known as the Coachella Valley Lakers) to assistant coach and head of player development.
Drew Seifert was promoted from assistant video coordinator to head video coordinator, while Gerdarius Troutman went from assistant video coordinator to player development coach.
Austin Pope (previously the South Bay Lakers head video coordinator) and Lucas Vargas (coaching associate) are the new assistant video coordinators.
