In the opening quarter of the Lakers’ game versus the Warriors at Chase Centre in San Francisco, California, USA, Los Angeles Lakers summer league head coach Dane Johnson is spotted on the sidelines.

It appears that going forward, the Los Angeles Lakers intend to place more of an emphasis on the growth of its young players. They brought in Beau Levesque as an assistant coach for player development and Ty Abbott as their lead coach for player development, in addition to hiring JJ Redick, a young head coach.

Having a robust G League programme is crucial to the NBA’s development of young players. Dane Johnson led the South Bay Lakers as their head coach this past season, in addition to serving as the team’s summer league head coach.

But it now appears that the organisation has broken ties with him.
Head coach Dane Johnson of the South Bay Lakers has departed.

In 2023–24, Johnson guided South Bay to an overall record of 26–24 in the G League. In his four years as head coach, four players were called up to the NBA.

This previous season, Johnson’s G League Lakers finished 26-24. But Jalen Hood-Schifino, Maxwell Lewis, and newcomer Colin Castleton also had strong performances.

Last month, Lewis and Castleton participated in the summer league for the Lakers as well. However, they finished just 3-2 in the main Las Vegas summer league and lost all three of their games in the California Classic.