True Lakers Fans

Lakers4Life wrote:https://mobile.twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/724434485731823616/photo/1

Nice reporting Craig. I just seen that. I wonder who we bring in?

This is a surprise, in terms of timing.


Wondering if there is a replacement in mind

I keep hearing Luke Walton is at the top of their list

Julius Russell wrote:This is a surprise, in terms of timing.


Wondering if there is a replacement in mind

Makes you wonder if we don't have a plan in place to sign certain players in the offseason? Because this was quick.

Source confirms that the Lakers have fired Byron Scott as head coach after two seasons (record 38-126). 

Bring Kevin Ollie in, if that happens we could land Durant. They are friends. Freakin Scott Brooks going to Washington DC though makes that place look intriguing for Durant. He was born there as well.

Scott had two team options left on his contract, but the Lakers told Scott on Sunday that he won't be returning for a third season as head coach, league sources told The Vertical.

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.

The Lakers did not dismiss Scott with his successor already in place, league sources said. General manager Mitch Kupchak and ownership will run a search.

Possible candidates to replace Scott could include Golden State assistant Luke Walton, former Rockets and Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, UConn coach Kevin Ollie and San Antonio Spurs assistant Ettore Messina.

Sources told ESPN that:

The Lakers had a team option on Byron Scott for next season because his contract included performance incentives the last two years that he did not meet

No surprise. Makes no difference anyway. We still need PLAYERS and a new coach won't attract them, only a star player will. It will be interesting to see who wants this gig. I hate to admit this, but I hope we blueprint Danny Ainge's model.

Who could have gotten that "team" to scrape out more than 25 wins? Maybe Phil or Pop or some other HOF coach, but with Kobe's retirement taking its place as the sole focus of this entire season, I don't see a way in which any coach could let Kobe be Kobe and simultaneously try to build a solid gameplan around an aged superstar who is gunning it for old time's sake every few games. Even if we had Isaiah Thomas, we'd still be losing 50-60 games and not sniffing the playoffs. Hell, even Chris Paul and Dwight Howard don't pass the championship Eye Test -- especially now with Kobe gone.

I think we saw enough flashes of excitement, speed, ball-sharing etc. from the majority of our young core of guards and forwards to know that it only takes a young Alpha Dog to step in and lead these guys to 30 or more wins. A Kobe, a LeBron, a Wade (before LeBron took it), etc. Not sure about KD quite yet. I believe in keeping D'Angelo (unless a brilliant deal involves him) and looking to get bigger and taller. We can play small ball, and we have guys who can run and fill up the wing and space the floor and all that finesse x's and o's stuff. But we need a couple of bruisers patrolling the key who can pass and defend and have some semblance of a scoring style. The defensive intensity must get better, and having bigs who can get busy on both ends of the court is essential - look at how damned lucky Golden State got with the Bogut deal. He had some injuries and some growing pains, but he's been playing the best basketball of his life offensively and defensively the last couple years - the kind that most envisioned when he came into the league. Plus he has Ezeli and Green to take minutes so he can stay fresh. We'll see if Luke is up to the challenge of being the next Phil Jackson or if he avoids his former team and not-so-current division "rival".

We're definitely a couple more seasons away from being able to have a team worthy of a 5 or 6 seed, but we know everything ebbs and flows and the vibes will return to this franchise and this team soon enough. We'll have to employ money and make deals with other non-playoff teams, taking risks on certain players and trying to land a big fish - like we always do.

Thanks, Byron. Your tenure was just as confusing and frustrating as Mike Brown's and Mike D'Antoni's, but at least you got to coach the Kobe Farewell Show.

Did firing Westphal and bringing in untested Pat Riley upset the Showtime process? Did firing Brown and D'Antoni somehow speed up our return to greatness?

How can you do worse than worst ever? Or should I not have said that? :scared2:

A few more wins between losses is what the fans want to see. Better team ball, more talent, more winning, a shot at the top 8 or higher. Hypothetically, would Carmelo fit in as is with this Laker group right now? If so, we'd need a crafty big man to play off him, who can give and receive from the post, like a Marc Gasol or Marcin Gortat type. We also need a solid Bradley Beal type of sharp-shooter. Hell, we need a few things. I look at our collection of young talent right now and I see a younger Shaw, Horry, Fisher, Fox, Rice type of "surround squad" that just needs a new-age Shaq and Kobe, and not more Eddie Joneses and Elden Campbells. But it is a process.

Our deal for Lamar Odom and Caron Butler was a major move that apparently proved to Kobe that Mitch was really trying to re-surround him with able-bodied players who could contend, and in the meantime we had energy and hustle from Walton, Turiaf, Farmar, Sasha "The Machine" Vujacic, Wafer and Brian Cook. Adding Radmanovic, Fisher and Ariza and developing Andrew Bynum over the next two years got us closer to breaking into the top of the West. Having glue and bench guys like Josh Powell and D.J. Mbenga helped too. Then came the star-crossed, super-successful (and in other's eyes dubious) deal for Pau Gasol.

But of course sporting a near-unbeatable Hall Of Fame coach to milk Kobe as the Alpha Dog and fit everyone else in around him was the most instrumental thing. I'm excited to see who we bring in . . new blood, new life, a new system now that The Black Mamba is gone, and we realistically shouldn't expect another legendary clutch HOF superstar to come across our plate so soon. We've been extremely blessed to see some of the all-time great players win multiple rings for our beloved Lakers, and now it's harder than ever to get back to that status. But when we're good, the NBA wins. It's always been like that. So I expect big things on the horizon.