The Los Angeles Lakers later on Friday will officially announce that famed Italian head coach Ettore Messina is to join Mike Brown's coaching staff.

After spending the past 22 seasons as a head coach - winning four Euroleague titles with Virtus Bologna and CSKA Moscow along the way - Messina will take on a new challenge and a new role.

Messina was most recently head coach of Real Madrid.

“It will be an interesting time for me," he said of his two-year deal with the Lakers, which carries a Euroleague opt-out after the first season.

“I want to take care of the technical part of the game, just like when I coached youth teams after some years when my role was recruiting players on the market."

Because of the current NBA lockout, the 51-year-old does not yet know when he can get to work with Kobe Bryant & Co in LA.

“If the lockout is long, it will cause us some problems," he argued.

"Teams like Dallas and San Antonio have experienced reliable systems, while our team will need to change its identity after a decade with the triple-post offense. And it would be tough to start the season after only a week of training camp."