Los Angeles Lakers Bring Back Assistant Coach For 2022-23 Season

The Los Angeles Lakers and assistant coach Phil Handy have agreed on a new deal for the 2022-23 season.

After missing the playoffs this past season, the Los Angeles Lakers have a new head coach in Darvin Ham, an almost entirely new support staff and a revamped roster around superstars LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook.

While Ham has filled out his coaching staff with new names and faces to the Lakers organization, assistant coach Phil Handy will be returning for the 2022-23 season.

Handy and the Lakers have agreed to a new contract extension after previously having one year left on his deal with Los Angeles, according to Marc J. Spears of ESPN and Andscape.

The Lakers signed assistant coach Phil Handy to contract extension last week, a source told @espn @andscape. Previously, Handy had one year left on his contract. pic.twitter.com/zDwjKSofZ3

— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) July 26, 2022

Serving as the team’s player development coach under head coach Mike Brown from 2011-2013, Handy then joined the Cleveland Cavaliers and Toronto Raptors organizations as an assistant before rejoining the Los Angeles Lakers in 2019.

During the 2019-20 season, the Lakers won their seventeenth championship in team history after the NBA’s resumption of play in the NBA Bubble. Played at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida, the NBA teams that were in attendance for the playoffs in 2020 did not play in front of fans due to the pandemic.

This was Handy’s third overall championship and sixth overall NBA Finals appearance, as he won a championship with the Cavaliers in 2016 and the Raptors in 2019.

Known by many around the league and being highly respected, Phil Handy will once again be with the Los Angeles Lakers for the 2022-23 season, serving as an assistant under newly appointed head coach Darvin Ham.