Lakers (Mike Brown) hire John Kuester as assistant coach

This afternoon the Lakers hired John Kuester as the assistant coach to Mike Brown. This was expected as Brown is most likely going to bring in familiar faces to help smooth his transition into an organization whose players (I'm sure) are reluctant to bring out their welcome mats. Kuester served as Mike's assistant coach back in 2007.

Elliott Teaford at insidesocal.com/lakers said this about John Kuester...

Kuester coached the Detroit Pistons for the last two seasons before being fired. He barely survived a players' mutiny at midseason. He was 57-107 in two seasons, with the Pistons missing the playoffs twice. The low point of the 2010-11 season came on Feb. 25, when seven players missed all or part of the team's shootaround and Kuester played only the six who made it on time during a lopsided loss that night to the 76ers.

Kuester benched veteran Richard Hamilton for the better part of seven weeks and also did not play point guard Rodney Stuckey at the start and the end of the season. Kuester was fired earlier this month, after the Pistons ownership changed hands to an investment group headed by California businessman Tom Gores.

Here's a quote from Kuester about joining Brown's staff: "I'm extremely excited to be working with Mike Brown, as well as to have the opportunity to work with the Lakers, one of the premier organizations in the NBA."

Original photo source: www.nba.com/cavaliers