After a couple years of painful coaching decisions and many head-scratching quotes, Byron Scott is out as the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. With Kobe Bryant gone and a host of young players now the focus of the team, the Lakers job should have no shortage of candidates to take the reins.
As head coach of the Lakers, Byron Scott posted a record of 38-126 during his two seasons, the worst of any Laker coach who led the team for multiple seasons. The roster he was given certainly did him no favors, and shepherding the ultra-competitive Kobe Bryant into retirement was just another challenge, but it’s safe to say Scott was not the right man to lead a young and developing team, and maybe not any team in the modern NBA.
The Lakers’ roster was set up for failure, but Scott really showed no signs of developing the team into the way he wanted them to play. Their defense was abhorrent the last two seasons, as his teams posted the second-worst defensive rating in the NBA in the 2014-15 season (110.6) and the worst defensive rating in the league this year (111.6).
The offensive end was no bright side either, as they fell from 24th in offensive rating (103.4) in his first season to 29th this year (101.6). Scott’s old-school system relied too much on mid-range shots and resulted in poor spacing. His system and tactics were especially not productive for the young players on the team, such as Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle, and particularly D’Angelo Russell.
Coaching a team going nowhere this year, Scott used his veterans too much, not giving a lot of the prominent youth on the team the minutes they should have gotten in a forgotten season. Russell, the third overall pick in last year’s draft, was an especially frustrating case, as Scott used him little in the beginning of the season, criticized him publicly in the media, and evidently did not communicate with his young star well, as Russell claimed he didn’t know what he was doing wrong in an interview earlier in the year. Bringing along a player as young as Russell slowly can be a reasonable strategy, but I can’t think of a benefit to trying to shake their confidence by trashing them in the media and, worst of all, not communicating with them on how to improve. Russell eventually finished the year well as the Lakers’ starting point guard, but to say his first year in the league was handled well by Scott and the Lakers organization would be far from the truth.
Even when Byron Scott was hired, the general consensus was that he would be a stopgap coach as LAL entered a transition period, and that was indeed the case as the Lakers are now ready to move on.
But the timing is a little tricky, as the Lakers management could soon be entering a transition period as well. Jim Buss, the President of Basketball Operations, put an ultimatum on himself a few years back to resign if he couldn’t bring the Lakers back into contention, with next season being the last year before he would be expected to leave his post. Although his successor would likely be another member of the Buss family, a new leader would potentially want their own coach and potentially their own GM below them.
But in the meantime, the Lakers play their basketball in Los Angeles, have a host of talented young players, potentially adding another high lottery talent to the fold (their 2016 first-round pick is top-3 protected), and over $40 million in cap space with Kobe Bryant finally off the books. The Lakers’ head coaching position hasn’t been this attractive in a few years, and for that there are plenty of rumors going around for who will take control next year.
One of the most discussed names, and most obvious, is Luke Walton. Walton came to prominence this year when he led the Warriors to a 39-4 start as temporary head coach while Steve Kerr. Walton lives in L.A. in the offseason, and, of course, spent the majority of his career as a player with the Lakers. He has deflected any questions about his future, as the Warriors push ahead in the playoffs, but there’s no question he would fit with the Lakers on multiple levels.
The second name getting a lot of noise is Ettore Messina, the Spurs assistant coach with a strong resume. Messina coached four Euroleague basketball teams, in addition to the Italian national team, before coming to America (Editor’s Note: He also has the same initials as Eddie Murphy) and practicing his trade under Gregg Popovich. Opposing coaches and front offices have raved about Messina, and it’s only a matter of time until he gets a head coaching job somewhere, so he would be another coach that the Lakers would be wise to lock up.
There are more candidates being swirled around, but the interest is less concrete. Sean Deveney of Sporting News shared the Lakers want a “recruiter-in-chief” to be their head coach, leading to names like Jeff Van Gundy, a veteran and well-liked former coach, and Kevin Ollie, current coach of Connecticut and former teammate of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook at OKC, to be mentioned as candidates.
General Manager Mitch Kupchak has said they want to find their next coach before the draft in June, so the direction the Lakers plan to take should become clear in the next month.
The magic and shine that carried the Lakers for decades has worn off. They have failed to bring in, or retain, any free agents for a few years now, and have fallen to the bottom of the NBA hierarchy.
Whomever they end up bringing in to take the reigns as head coach will have the lofty expectation of bringing the Lakers back to their customary place at the top of the NBA, a task much easier said than done.
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