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How Many Games Do You Project The Lakers Will Win This Season?

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duck dodgers said:
Looks like Kevin Ollie is interested in the job
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Bring KD with him the job is his......

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The Lakers’ coaching quandary


Two years after Byron Scott was hired, two unremarkable years that culminated with this season’s historically bad 17-win campaign, Scott is gone, dismissed after stewarding Kobe Bryant’s farewell tour and doing his part to protect the draft pick the Lakers desperately needed to land in the top three.

Surprised? Hardly. Sure, in recent weeks it appeared Scott may have been safe for another season. The D’Angelo Russell debacle reinforced Scott’s early-season opinion that Russell, despite his marvelous talent, lacked the maturity needed to play extended minutes, and the Lakers are unlikely to lure any elite free agents this summer, not with the franchise in the fledgling stage of a full-scale rebuild. Scott’s job security seemed to improve last week, when Tom Thibodeau and Scott Brooks – the two top coaching free agents – agreed to deals with Minnesota and Washington, respectively.

Yet Scott was never more than a placeholder for the Lakers, a bridge coach with the toughness to see the team through a difficult transition. Any optimism that L.A. could succeed with Scott vanished when LaMarcus Aldridge passed on a feeble Lakers sales pitch last summer; from then on it was all Kobe, all in, with Scott taking the brunt of the daily backlash from a disastrous season.

The timing though was … curious. Dismissing Scott could not have been a heavily debated decision. The Lakers’ season was effectively lost by mid-December, leaving plenty of time to plan for the end of it. An open coaching job in Los Angeles would have been a sought after opportunity. Thibodeau would have been interested in it; Brooks, too. By waiting until Sunday to relieve Scott, the Lakers will dip into a coaching pool considerably shallower than it was a week ago.

Did Thibodeau not appeal to them? Thibs’ thirst for total control could have been a problem, with co-owner and vice president of basketball operations Jim Buss and general manager Mitch Kupchak in charge now, and Jeanie Buss, co-owner and president, poised to take over next summer. And what about Brooks? The Wizards coach lives in the area and would have jumped at the opportunity to interview for the gig. Did Kevin Durant’s former coach, with an NBA Finals appearance on his résumé and Coach of the Year hardware on his shelf, not warrant a look?

There’s an easy explanation: The Lakers are in lockstep on whom they want. Luke Walton is an obvious choice; the former Lakers forward has strong ties to the franchise and is fresh off the most successful fill-in head coaching stint in NBA history. Connecticut’s Kevin Ollie has been on the NBA’s radar for a few years. Spurs assistant Ettore Messina has for even longer. Jeff Van Gundy has a proven track record and the disciplined system the Lakers badly need.

And yet: Will these coaches want the Lakers? Walton has a cushy gig in Golden State and would be as appealing of a coaching candidate – if not more – next summer. Ollie is entrenched at UConn. Van Gundy may not be eager to jump into an unstable situation.
And that’s the biggest question with the Lakers, isn’t it? The brewing civil war in the Buss family has been, well, civilized to this point, with Jeanie and Jim Buss largely staying out of the headlines. But with Jim Buss’ self-imposed deadline to turn the Lakers into a contender looming – and with Jeanie indicating that deadline is next summer, with contention meaning the second round of the playoffs – a battle for control of the franchise could be unavoidable.

Bryant is gone, Scott now is too, and the NBA’s marquee franchise is at a crossroads. The right coach – a leader, a teacher, a strategist – will push the Lakers back toward a path to contention. The wrong one will push L.A. further and further away from it.
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Source:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/the-lakers--coaching-quandary-161933892.html
 
I'd def take Ollie before Puke, but if circumstances were different, Monty would actually be number 1 for me.
 
[quote name="PMatic"][quote name="Th3RealF0lkBlu3s"]We're still sure that Mitch and Jim are being fired if we don't go to playoffs next year?[/quote]That's been the message the last three years. They have to get back to contention per Jim and Jeanie.[/quote]So no, we're not sure.

We are nowhere close to contention.

Byron was pink slipped, and only Byron.

If they're not being let go right now, they're not going to be let go.
 
:rolleyes i dunno why you guys are rooting for Luke to come on board,,,i dont hate him or dislike him as a head coach,,IMO,,HE IS NOT the right fit to coach the Los Angeles Lakers,WE NEED TALENTED players NOT WASHED-OUT players to win championship,,thats it for now....:smh:
 
DarthSka said:
So no, we're not sure.

We are nowhere close to contention.

Byron was pink slipped, and only Byron.

If they're not being let go right now, they're not going to be let go.
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She's not firing them though. Jim said he'd walk away and I assume Mitch would follow if we're not at least in the 2nd rd of the playoffs next year.
 
619destroyer said:
:rolleyes i dunno why you guys are rooting for Luke to come on board,,,i dont hate him or dislike him as a head coach,,IMO,,HE IS NOT the right fit to coach the Los Angeles Lakers,WE NEED TALENTED players NOT WASHED-OUT players to win championship,,thats it for now....:smh:
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If I understand correctly, which I don't, your'e saying he's not the right coach because he's washed as a player?
 
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LA Lakers Brass Still Can't See Obvious Path Forward After Byron Scott Firing


LOS ANGELES — There was a temptation for Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak to keep Byron Scott on as head coach. At least it would've projected some semblance of stability for the proud Los Angeles Lakers.

Ultimately, there were too many voices howling that Scott was just not good enough at his job.

Here's what one person inside the organization—one whose voice was among those criticizing Scott as a fail—texted in the aftermath of the decision Sunday to let Scott go:

"What a mess."

See, even with this wholly logical choice not to exercise a team contract option to move forward with Scott's antiquated ideas, nothing is solved.

The Lakers remain confused about what to do—and who they should be.

Buss and Kupchak weren't sure what to do with Scott, but there's uncertainty everywhere.

Team president Jeanie Buss isn't sure what to do about her brother Jim, head of basketball operations, and Kupchak, the team's general manager—all while her fiance, Phil Jackson, remains very much a possibility to join the Lakers front office next year.

And no one is sure what to do about life after Kobe Bryant. That's why they put off dealing with that reality as long as possible.

Who might come in free agency to save the day? They don't know.

It is a mess, and it probably was destined to be a mess transitioning from a visionary leader and decision-maker such as Jerry Buss, operating from an NBA playbook he'd mastered, to a new leadership group unequipped to anticipate a changing NBA landscape.

What Scott's departure creates, though, is a unique possibility for the fragmented Lakers to rally behind one fresh, familiar face: Luke Walton.

There haven't been many easy decisions for the club since Buss' death in 2013. So far, L.A. is determined to make this one more difficult than it needs to be.

According to team sources, the Lakers intend to put together a long list headed by Walton, San Antonio Spurs assistant Ettore Messina and University of Connecticut head coach Kevin Ollie. Execs will spend indefinite time determining who should be their next head coach when they should only be plotting the best pitch to Walton.

Kupchak might not be as convinced of Walton's coaching chops as many people. Jim Buss wants to explore options despite being partial to Walton—and is among the countless folks the amiable Walton has made feel comfortable over the years and closer to him than he really is.

Walton's the great guy who shares his cell number with so many people that he can't possibly respond to the number of texts coming in to him. And the fact he doesn't respond to everyone and is cool with that shows his strong sense of self.

He downplays his sharpness with basketball concepts, offers the Lakers an ongoing link to good friend Bryant, invigorates a fanbase that rolled its collective eyes at Scott, is young enough at 36 to connect with the Lakers' young crew of players and would command rare immediate respect from Lakers millennials, based on his success with the modern-day Warriors.

Considering how much Warriors coach Steve Kerr was molded by Gregg Popovich and Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue was mentored by Doc Rivers, Walton is the best fruit to come off Jackson's coaching tree. That would mean something after the Buss family passed over Jackson's preferred successor, Brian Shaw, for Mike Brown and Jackson himself in next hiring Mike D'Antoni.

"Bill may be his father, but he's really my son," Jackson said about Luke during the Lakers' championship ring ceremony in 2010.

Not that it's necessarily Jim Buss' priority—and who knows now if Jackson returns or stays in New York—but hiring Walton would be respecting Jackson as Lakers family and making the right move for the future.

Regarding the pull Walton feels to stay with the Warriors while he's still learning, his team seemingly a dynasty in the making, it'd be shocking if he's not gettable. He truly loves L.A., and deep down he knows it's Kerr's show up north. He would be in line to lead the Lakers as long as he wants.

The Lakers' reluctance to keep changing coaches is one reason Scott had been a possibility to stay. Kupchak appreciated that Scott achieved the goal of getting Bryant to the finish line healthy enough for that glorious end game that enriched the franchise all over again. And Buss was conscious of how his father always envisioned Chick Hearn's "Scotty" becoming Lakers head coach.

It wasn't as clear-cut to drop Scott as it should've been.

But Buss and Kupchak are understandably uneasy having to chase their losses with more and more changes. They've lost so many more games than they've been accustomed to losing.

They've also lost a lot of people's confidence.

It's why the Lakers are a mess, even correctly moving on from Scott.

After all their steps on such firm footing, it's an uncertain feeling trying to slog uphill.
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Source:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...obvious-path-forward-after-byron-scott-firing
 
Maaaan that article isays what I've been fearing all along, they had no real idea what to do after Byron is gone as far as identity. And essentially this could be a lame duck hire should Phil want his own guy when he comes in next summer.
 
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