Can the former player turn the team he once flourished for into a competitor? For Los Angeles fans, it’s a must.
Byron Scott played for the Los Angeles Lakers from 1984 – 1993 and returned for one year in 1996. During his stints, he played with some of the greatest players to ever play the game, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson during the Showtime era, and briefly with a very young Kobe Bryant. Now he returns to Tinseltown in search of redemption and the resurrection of a once-glorious franchise.
The task is easier said than done. Forgive the cliché, but this might even be a vast understatement for this team. The spry, youthful Kobe Bryant of 1996 is a distant memory as the six foot six-inch shooting guard has been hobbled with injuries as of late and may never be the same as he once was. With a young roster derived during the offseason after failed attempts to lure LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony to Los Angeles, the Lakers are poised for a tough road ahead.
Scott also has the small matter of filling some of the biggest shoes in the industry, though luckily he didn’t have to directly follow the Phil Jackson show. Not only is Phil Jackson well respected as a coach, but he brings a pedigree of winning with him. Byron Scott, as unfair as it might be, brings several losing seasons with him. Scott experienced two winning seasons, including back-to-back NBA Finals visits, before being fired midway through his fourth season in New Jersey. Afterwards, he coached New Orleans for five seasons and a small part of a sixth season, though he was fired early on during that season. From there, things simply got worse as he guided the Cleveland Cavaliers to their worst three years since the pre-LeBron era.
Though his trips on the NBA coaching carousel haven’t always been pleasant, he has been able to work with no shortage of talented point guards, including Jason Kidd, Chris Paul, and Kyrie Irving. It will be interesting to see if Steve Nash’s role is expanded now that Scott has taken the reins or if it will decrease to provide valuable minutes for young guard Jeremy Lin. Once again, Scott should have a playmaker at PG to run the show.
The problem will be what to do with young talents Julius Randle, Nick Young, Xavier Henry, Ed Davis, and Wesley Johnson. There should be no doubt that this team is not ready to compete for the likes of an NBA championship, so it’s just a matter of time before the coach has to make a tough decision and either develop young players or sink the ship on the hopes of Nash, Bryant, and Carlos Boozer reclaiming their glory days for a likely short-lived run during the playoffs.
With the right support, Scott can make this thing work. He should have at least a few years to turn the team around, and with Kobe Bryant still on the roster plus a potential plethora of cap space to work with next offseason and many younger players, the building blocks are already in place. Scott has a history with the organization which can’t go overlooked. This job is by far one of the toughest, if not for more than the expectations alone, but Scott might just be the guy for it. At least Lakers fans should hope he is.
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