On Sunday, the Los Angeles Lakers decided that it was officially time to dismiss Scott as the team’s head coach.
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The Lakers move into the coaching market after two prominent coaches who had interest in Los Angeles – Tom Thibodeau and Scott Brooks – accepted new jobs in recent days.
Contrary to what pundits have expected, the Lakers may have plenty of coaching candidates in line to take over Scott’s place, and according to Chris Mannix of The Vertical, Golden State Warriors assistant coach Luke Walton is “an obvious choice” to fill the position. With Scott’s departure, however, LA should be linked with almost every top assistant and out of work coach, including Jeff Van Gundy and Ettore Messina, the latter of whom is now an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs.
What’s the Lakers’ hope for their new coach and staff?
UConn Head Coach Kevin Ollie may be a more likely candidate for the vacancy than Fisher and there is a report out that he finds the job intriguing. The former shooting guard won three championships with the “Showtime” team that featured Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy under head coach Pat Riley. Walton played with Kobe and he knows what it takes to win and that the younger Lakers, while not willing to dig deep like Kobe every night, need to understand that putting on that Laker jersey means something.
Fisher took the Knicks head coaching job without any experience and was sacked after a dismal 40-96 record in almost two full seasons.
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Both seasons Scott coached the Lakers, the team finished with their worst seasons in franchise history by win percentage. Russell, Randle and Clarkson are all solid players, and the Lakers will keep their high draft pick if they finish in the top three of the National Basketball Association draft lottery next month. While Lakers coaching job may not be as interesting as before because of the current roster, it will be challenging to the next head coach. If the Lakers’ pick falls out of the top-3, they wouldn’t get to pick a high draft pick this season. “Only winning something like 38 games in two years”. Unlike in New York, Phil Jackson reiterated that he will only interview those coaches whom he is associated with. They are flush with salary cap space this summer (more than $60 million), and still hopeful that free-agent-to-be Kevin Durant will choose to leave the Oklahoma City Thunder behind to join Laker Land in July. “We have to rely on the lottery and the luck of the gods to give us a pick this year in the top three”. He frequently said contradictory things about how his arcane methods were supposed to help young players develop, and had no qualms about ripping Russell in public. But at this very moment, the biggest question is who should the Lakers hire this time?
