Hawks assistant Chris Jent is a candidate to become Lakers assistant

Hawks assistant coach Chris Jent is a candidate to become an assistant under new Lakers head coach Darvin Ham, sources tell Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times.

Jent, 52, had a short playing career after four seasons at Ohio State, winning a championship with Houston in 1993-94. He’s a long-time NBA assistant, with stints in Philadelphia, Orlando (where he was briefly an interim head coach in 2004-05), Cleveland, Sacramento and now Atlanta.

He was a Cavs assistant from 2006-11, with four seasons of overlap with star LeBron James, so the two are obviously familiar with each other. Jent has been with Atlanta for the past five seasons and served as acting head coach earlier this season when Nate McMillan was placed in the league’s health and safety protocols.

Ham and Jent also have experience together, as they were both assistants with the Hawks under Mike Budenholzer in 2017-18.

Echoing a report from Shams Charania of The Athletic a couple of weeks ago, Turner says Rasheed Wallace remains a candidate to become an assistant coach as well.