News 'n Views - Apr 2016: Luke Walton gives Lakers fans someone to believe in
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lakersfreak
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2016 6:14 am    Post subject:

Major Decisions Loom For Lakers Post-Kobe Bryant
by Trevor Lane - lakersnation.com

The lights at Staples Center have grown dim. The roar of the crowd has faded. The Lakers themed confetti is gone, resigned to the trash heap (or eBay).
Kobe Bryant has left the building.

The Los Angeles Lakers now head into an offseason of uncertainty without their star for the first time in two decades. The team’s win total has sunk lower and lower for three consecutive years, and this past season they set the franchise record for ineptitude.

Meanwhile, Lakers supporters are growing impatient as the rebuilding process drags on. Some are starting to lose faith in the organization, which boasts the largest fan base in the league.

Troubling times in Laker Land, to be sure.

General manager Mitch Kupchak has repeatedly said that the team has three areas that they can utilize to rescue the team from basketball purgatory: the draft, free agency, and trades.
While this is true, a larger question looms over the sunny skies of Los Angeles, and the answer will ultimately dictate the success or failure of the club: Just how desperate are the Lakers?

Most franchises these days, were they in the position that the purple and gold find themselves in, would continue playing the long game. Draft young players with potential, avoid signing cap-clogging big deals and look for scenarios where assets can be poached from other teams via trade.

Eventually, those moves will lead to a defining moment when either a star is drafted or can be acquired via trade, and from there the push towards relevancy begins.

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2016 6:14 am    Post subject:

Exit Interviews Videos - Mitch Kupchak
by lakersnation.com

Kupchak Leaves Door Open For Lakers Coaching Change

Kupchak On Future Of Julius Randle & Larry Nance, Jr.

Kupchak On D'Angelo Russell, Nick Young

Kupchak On Lakers & NBA Free Agency

Kupchak On 2016 NBA Draft, Trading Young Core An Option?
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2016 7:04 am    Post subject:

lakersfreak wrote:
Exit Interviews Videos - Mitch Kupchak
by lakersnation.com

Kupchak Leaves Door Open For Lakers Coaching Change


Well, this is encouraging.
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2016 8:01 am    Post subject:

Lakersneuron wrote:
lakersfreak wrote:
Exit Interviews Videos - Mitch Kupchak
by lakersnation.com

Kupchak Leaves Door Open For Lakers Coaching Change


Well, this is encouraging.


Except for they haven't fired him yet and many good FA coaches have already been hired. Bleep!
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2016 6:26 am    Post subject:

Could the Lakers be close to making a decision on Byron Scott?
by Gary Kester - lakersoutsiders.com

Coming into the 2015-16 regular season, many people expected the Los Angeles Lakers to at least show signs of improvement after two straight seasons that saw their win total plummet all the way to just 21.

Instead, their downward spiral continued, winning just 17 games and recording the worst record in the franchise’s illustrious history for the third consecutive season. Although Byron Scott did not handle everything well in his first year as head coach, he was dealt a terrible hand with a roster deprived of talent, combined with a plethora of injuries. That earned him a pass among a large portion of the fan base.

Now, fans are anxiously waiting as the front office ponders whether to dismiss Scott as the team’s head coach, or to give him another year sans Kobe Bryant’s farewell.

The vast majority of the Lakers’ massive fan base wants the team to move in another direction, but some are getting to the point where they just want a decision to be made so that everyone can focus on what is next.

Well, at the very beginning of hour two of the Friday, April 22 podcast of Mychal Thompson and Mike Trudell, the latter — who is the Lakers’ sideline reporter for Time Warner Cable SportsNet — had an interesting comment that might suggest that a decision is on the horizon.

Right before Thompson — the father of Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson — was going to start the segment by talking about assistant coach Luke Walton, Trudell made sure that he was not going to talk about a certain piece of information.

“What I can tell you you’re not going to do is share the off-record information I just shared with you during the break,” Trudell said. Thompson then replied with, “You can bring it up in a sensitive kind of way if you want to.”

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PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2016 6:29 am    Post subject:

Is It Time For Lakers To Part Ways With Mitch Kupchak?
by Hannah Kulik - lakersnation.com

While the NBA’s postseason is in full swing, the Lakers are sitting at home for the third year in a row wondering if things can get any worse and where they go from here. Most fans are clamoring for ownership to cut ties with head coach Byron Scott, and virtually every player on the roster is under intense scrutiny after a season in which the team won a franchise-low 17 games.

The Lakers are indeed rife with problems, but is it possible that the biggest issue of all is flying under the radar?

Byron Scott inferred many times this season that the main problem with the Lakers was a lack of talent. If that is the case, who is to blame? Who was responsible for putting together a ragtag, mismatched group consisting of an oft-injured Kobe Bryant whose bloated contract took up most of the cap space, a contingent of young, untested players, a few career journeymen, and some players who never should have made the roster in the first place?

It is unclear what role Lakers’ co-owner Jim Buss played, if any, in assembling this distinguished group. Someone must take the blame, however, and since an owner is never going to fire himself, the ultimate responsibility must be attributable to the General Manager.

After graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1976, Kupchak had a successful career as an NBA player including a stint with the Lakers in the mid-1980s. He retired as a player in 1986 and has been in the Lakers’ front office for the past 30 years. For a long time, he toiled in the very large shadow cast by Lakers’ legend Jerry West, who was General Manager and then Vice President of Basketball Operations. It was not until West left the Lakers in 2000 that Kupchak had any real power. Many years later, fans still mourn West’s departure, and many still gave him all the credit for assembling the Shaq-Kobe squad that won three consecutive titles.

Over the years, Kupchak had his own front office wins and losses. As General Manager, one of his first moves was to acquire the aging Karl Malone and Gary Payton, which sounded good at the time but did not work. He orchestrated trades for Trevor Ariza in 2007 and Pau Gasol in 2008 which were instrumental in leading to two more championships. But he let the younger Ariza leave prematurely and orchestrated the disastrous move to sign 38-year-old Steve Nash to a large three-year deal that cost the team a plethora of future draft choices.

Trading for Dwight Howard in 2012 seemed like a good move at the time, but there were always signs that the Lakers were not Howard’s first choice, and he bolted after one year with the team getting nothing in return. Kupchak’s lack of leadership worsened the impact of the vetoed Chris Paul trade, with Lamar Odom never recovering emotionally and the team’s relationship with future Hall of Famer Pau Gasol irreparable damaged.

Kupchak sat by while the teams’ relationship with Gasol deteriorated, who eventually left as a free agent to play for the Chicago Bulls with the Lakers receiving nothing in return. Gasol has since proven that he had plenty left in the tank.

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PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2016 8:27 am    Post subject:

Dr. Funkbot wrote:
Lakersneuron wrote:
lakersfreak wrote:
Exit Interviews Videos - Mitch Kupchak
by lakersnation.com

Kupchak Leaves Door Open For Lakers Coaching Change


Well, this is encouraging.


Except for they haven't fired him yet and many good FA coaches have already been hired. Bleep!


Thibs was a good coach we missed out on. We dodged a bullet with Brooks going to DC.

We still have great options with Blatt, Messina, and Walton.
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 23, 2016 5:05 pm    Post subject:

Lakersneuron wrote:
Thibs was a good coach we missed out on. We dodged a bullet with Brooks going to DC.


Brooks might've been the better fit given his proven ability to develop youngsters (and his relationship with KD).

And Tibs was never going to go to a team that couldn't offer him any front office powers.
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 24, 2016 6:16 am    Post subject:

Hornets-Heat series could be a Lakers free agency preview
by Harrison Faigen - silverscreenandroll.com

The front office should be watching Charlotte take on Miami like it's on the Home Shopping Network

With their worst season ever in the books, the Los Angeles Lakers and their fans have been left watching the playoffs from the outside for just the ninth time in franchise history. If the team wants to avoid doing the same thing next year,the front office will have to make good use of the team's league-leading 65.8 million in cap space this summer.

In that spirit, the Lakers brain trust must be watching the first round playoff series between the Miami Heat and the Charlotte Hornets like a starving man in an all-you-can-eat buffet. While Nicolas Batum's injury makes the series slightly less compelling, he and Heat center Hassan Whiteside are both free agents that would seamlessly fill the Lakers' holes in the middle and on the wing.

Charlotte has struggled thus far against Miami, but Batum has still shown a lot of the value he brought to the team during their unexpected run to 48 wins. He's struggled from distance so far (shooting 27.3 percent on three-pointers so far after making 34.8 percent of them during the regular season) but has still had value for Charlotte as a secondary creator alongside Kemba Walker.

Batum is not the type of player team's are going to isolate against a set defense, but the Frenchman is a really useful option in dribble hand-offs like this one:

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 24, 2016 6:20 am    Post subject:

NBA Draft 2016: Simulating Lakers Lottery Odds in Late April
by Cody Williams - lakeshowlife.com

Simulating the 2016 NBA Draft Lottery in late April to see what happens with the Lakers’ first-round pick

Whether it’s comforting or even more unsettling than ever before, the Los Angeles Lakers are less than a month away from finally having some sort of resolution in regards to what will happen with their first round pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. There has been plenty of anxiety conjured up regarding the fate of the pick over the past season, but everything will be decided in less than a month on May 17 when the Ping-Pong balls fall how they may.

The Lakers pick has certainly sparked a great deal of debate over the past season for a number of reasons. There have been those who have maintained that losing the pick wouldn’t be the worst thing for the franchise while there are fans on the opposite end of the spectrum. Similarly, there are those who were opposed to how the Lakers let the pick hang over their 2015-16 season and others who believed it should’ve been at the forefront.

In essence, though, none of that matters anymore. The Lakers finished the season with the second-worst record in the NBA and now have a 55.8 percent chance of keeping their pick by it falling in the top-3 and a 19.9 percent chance of winning the No. 1-overall pick in the NBA Draft Lottery.

As such, it’s always good to see where the odds fall in the lottery for the Lakers on a given day. With less than a month remaining until May 17, we again ran the 2016 NBA Draft Lottery 100 times to see what happened with the Lakers pick using tankathon.com. These are those results:

No. 1 Pick: 22 percent

No. 2 Pick: 15 percent

No. 3 Pick: 14 percent

No. 4 Pick or Below (Lose Pick): 49 percent


It’s certainly not great to see the Lakers losing the pick nearly half the time and more times than their odds would indicate with these simulations. However, it is interesting to see how the simulations are bookended with losing the pick more times than the odds suggest while also getting the No. 1 pick more times than the odds suggest.

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 24, 2016 8:20 pm    Post subject:

Lakers Part Ways with Head Coach Byron Scott
by nba.com

The Los Angeles Lakers have decided not to pick up the option for the 2016-17 season on the contract for Head Coach Byron Scott, it was announced tonight.

"We would like to thank Byron for his hard work, dedication and loyalty over the last two years, but have decided it is in the best interest of the organization to make a change at this time," said General Manager Mitch Kupchak.

The search for a new head coach will begin immediately.

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 24, 2016 8:26 pm    Post subject:

Internet Reacts to News of the Lakers Firing Byron Scott
by Eric Yee - lakeshowlife.com

Lakers fans everywhere took to the internet to voice their approval of the Lakers’ decision to finally get rid of head coach, Byron Scott

For months now Lakers fans have by desperately pleading with the front office for them to step up and fire head coach, Byron Scott, so when they finally decided to do so Sunday night, the internet exploded with joy.

Even with the premier of the new season of Game of Thrones, “Byron Scott” jumped all else in the mentions on Twitter in the United States, at least momentarily.

Here are some of our favorite Tweets reacting to the great news.

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 24, 2016 8:27 pm    Post subject:

Los Angeles Lakers Fire Head Coach Byron Scott
by Honi Ahmadian - lakersoutsiders.com

The Los Angeles Lakers have fired head coach Byron Scott, according to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The Los Angeles Lakers have fired coach Byron Scott, league sources tell @TheVertical

After a long wait from the end of the season, the Lakers finally made their decision on Sunday night. Scott finished his Lakers tenure with a 38-126 record in two full seasons. Those two seasons were the worst in franchise history.

The decision was somewhat foreshadowed earlier this week, when TWC Sportsnet sideline reporter Mike Trudell mentioned having confidential information on his radio show.

Many fans will rightly criticize the fact that the decision was made so late, especially with coaching targets Tom Thibodeau and Scott Brooks already off the market. However, the important issue was that the decision was indeed made, and Scott is no longer the head coach of the Lakers.

In addition to the benefit of firing Scott, it seems that this move lays to rest many of the rumors involving the front office. According to Bill Oram, the decision was made by Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss, and it does not signify any movements in the front office, namely bringing in Phil Jackson as the president of basketball operations after next season.

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 24, 2016 11:18 pm    Post subject:

lakersfreak wrote:
Los Angeles Lakers Fire Head Coach Byron Scott
by Honi Ahmadian - lakersoutsiders.com

The Los Angeles Lakers have fired head coach Byron Scott, according to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The Los Angeles Lakers have fired coach Byron Scott, league sources tell @TheVertical

After a long wait from the end of the season, the Lakers finally made their decision on Sunday night. Scott finished his Lakers tenure with a 38-126 record in two full seasons. Those two seasons were the worst in franchise history.

The decision was somewhat foreshadowed earlier this week, when TWC Sportsnet sideline reporter Mike Trudell mentioned having confidential information on his radio show.

Many fans will rightly criticize the fact that the decision was made so late, especially with coaching targets Tom Thibodeau and Scott Brooks already off the market. However, the important issue was that the decision was indeed made, and Scott is no longer the head coach of the Lakers.

In addition to the benefit of firing Scott, it seems that this move lays to rest many of the rumors involving the front office. According to Bill Oram, the decision was made by Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss, and it does not signify any movements in the front office, namely bringing in Phil Jackson as the president of basketball operations after next season.

Continued....
Thibbs and Brooks (both good coaches) were never going to be seriously considered because of the need for control (Thibbs) and being a definitely better coach (Brooks - it was NO guarantee that KD will go where he is coaching).

In addition, the FO does not want to make the same mistake of not having a very good idea of who their future coach will be before firing Byron.
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 9:36 am    Post subject:

Lakers making 'long list' of candidates to replace Byron Scott
by Harrison Faigen - silverscreenandroll.com

The coaching search begins

The Los Angeles Lakers fired head coach Byron Scott on Sunday night, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of the Vertical. Their next order of business is finding his replacement.

The Lakers released a statement announcing that they had decided not to pick up the option on Scott's contract to retain him as coach for the 2016-17 season, in which general manager Mitch Kupchak thanked Scott for his service and the team announced "the search for a new head coach will begin immediately."

It may not be a brief search. According to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times, the front office plans to make "a long list" of candidates to replace Scott. Two names that won't be on that list are Scott Brooks and Tom Thibodeau, after both took other jobs this week, with Thibodeau taking over the Minnesota Timberwolves and Brooks hired to succeed Randy Wittman in Washington.

The cupboard of candidates is not totally bare, however. Wojnarowski's report on Scott's firing included some potential candidates for the job:

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.

As did the report from Mark Medina of the L.A. Daily News:

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

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 9:37 am    Post subject:

Derek Fisher Interested In Team’s Coaching Vacancy
by Corey Hansford - lakersnation.com

With the news coming out that the Lakers are moving on from head coach Byron Scott, the attention has quickly turned to who might replace him. The Lakers are reportedly going to compile a long list of potential candidates so it could be some time before they come to a decision.

The man many fans have been talking about is former Lakers player and current Golden State Warriors assistant coach Luke Walton. However, another former Lakers player could get a look too, in former New York Knicks coach Derek Fisher.

According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, Fisher has interest in the Lakers job:

Sources indicate Derek Fisher has interest in the Lakers job. Obviously Laker front office still compiling their list and gauging interest from potential candidates after Byron Scott wasn’t retained Sunday night.

Fisher’s time in New York under Phil Jackson didn’t go as well as they had hoped. Fisher went only 40-96 with the Knicks including 17-65 in his only full season with the team. There were rumors of issues between Fisher and Jackson over Fisher’s usage of the triangle offense.

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 9:38 am    Post subject:

Kevin Ollie intrigued about possibility
by Mark Medina - insidesocal.com

Count Connecticut coach Kevin Ollie as one of the many presumed candidates who would be interested in coaching the Lakers.

Although he has remained happy coaching the Huskies for the past four years, Ollie finds the Lakers’ head-coaching vacancy intriguing, according to a source familiar with his thinking.

Though it would be viewed as a common courtesy, the Lakers would not need to seek permission from the Huskies to interview Ollie. Unlike coaches on opposing NBA teams, no NCAA program can levy tampering charges. But some complications could emerge surrounding Ollie’s contract should the Lakers want to hire him to replace Byron Scott.

Ollie has three years left on his contract with UConn after signing a five-year extension in 2014. But with former Huskies athletic director Warde Manuel leaving for the University of Michigan earlier this season, Ollie has a clause in his contract that would allow him to leave for another team without needing to negotiate a buyout, according to sources familiar with the terms. A source added, however, those terms would not go into affect until March, 2017.

The 43-year-old Ollie is an intriguing option beyond winning an NCAA championship with the Huskies in 2014.

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 9:57 am    Post subject:

Intrigued is good enough for me I'm sold
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 11:29 am    Post subject:

Fish should first prove himself as an assistant. Too big a jump to the HC position hurt him already.
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Lakers depth chart

PG Johnson / Goodrich
SG Bryant / West / Scott
SF Baylor / Worthy / Cooper
PF Mikkelsen / Hairston / McAdoo / Gasol
C Chamberlain / Abdul-Jabbar / O'Neal / Mikan
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 8:00 pm    Post subject:

Mitch Kupchak Says Lakers Don’t Want To ‘Drag Out’ Coaching Search
by Corey Hansford - lakersnation.com

Now that Byron Scott is no longer the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, the rumors surrounding who will be the team’s next coach have been flying. Names like Luke Walton, Mark Jackson, and Kevin Ollie have all been mentioned as potential replacements to lead the Lakers out of the cellar.

There are a number of excellent coaching options available and the Lakers are expected to look at a ton of different people, though there isn’t necessarily a favorite to land the job just yet.

Regardless of who the Lakers ultimately choose, they apparently want to get everything done relatively soon as General Manager Mitch Kupchak spoke on Time Warner Cable SportsNet and said the Lakers don’t want to drag out this coaching search via Mark Medina of the LA Daily News:

Mitch on @TWCSportsNet about coaching search: "It's not something we want to drag out."

This line of thinking makes a lot of sense for the team as they have a very busy summer ahead of them. The NBA Draft Lottery takes place on May 17, and if the Lakers keep their pick, they will move on to scouting for the NBA Draft on June 23. Free agency will begin on July 1, and the Lakers will have money for two maximum salary players as well.

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 8:02 pm    Post subject:

Lakers Receive Permission To Interview Spurs’ Ettore Messina
by Ryan Ward - lakersnation.com

Less than 24 hours after parting ways with Byron Scott, the Los Angeles Lakers have already begun aggressively pursuing a replacement at head coach. The team has reportedly asked for permission to interview a candidate that is currently employed and in the middle of a playoff run.

According to Sam Amick of USA Today, the Lakers have received permission from the San Antonio Spurs to interview assistant coach Ettore Messina:

According to a person with knowledge of the situation, the Lakers have received permission from the San Antonio Spurs to interview their lead assistant coach, Ettore Messina, as a possible replacement for the recently departed Byron Scott.

Messina is no stranger to the Lakers organization with the current Spurs assistant having served on Mike Brown’s coaching staff in Los Angeles during the 2011-12 NBA season. Messina has been on Gregg Popovich’s coaching staff since 2014 after a brief stint as head coach of CSKA Moscow.

Apparently, Messina may be a little more than viable option for the Lakers head coaching job. The 56-year-old is rumored to be on the team’s short list of candidates, according to Amick:

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 11:50 pm    Post subject:

Mitch Kupchak - Would be nice to hire coach before draft
by espn.go.com

Los Angeles Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak doesn't think his search for a new coach will take a long time.

Kupchak told the team's official television network Monday that he has a large list of candidates to be the Lakers' fourth full-time coach since 2011 but that he expects to narrow the field quickly.

"I think it's unlikely there will be anything done in the next week or two," Kupchak said on Time Warner Cable SportsNet. "But certainly I don't anticipate this dragging into the summer. We'd like to get it done. We're looking to have a big offseason. It would be nice to have our staff in place during the draft and certainly when July 1 rolls around."

A quick coaching search hasn't always been a priority in Los Angeles during owner Jim Buss' tenure atop the basketball operations department. The Lakers' last search lasted nearly three months -- or 89 days, to be precise -- between Mike D'Antoni's resignation and Byron Scott's hiring in the summer of 2014, well after the draft and free-agent signing period.

The Lakers fired Scott on Sunday night after the two worst seasons in the 16-time NBA champion franchise's history. Los Angeles went 38-126 under Scott, including 17-65 in Kobe Bryant's farewell season.

Kupchak said the Lakers dropped Scott due to "a bunch of things. ... If you're going to make a change, make the change now."

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PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2016 11:52 pm    Post subject:

Lakers’ Coach Wish List Contains Ten Names?
by basketballinsiders.com

The Lakers are compiling a long wish list of coaching candidates for their search. Among the candidates the Lakers will look at are:

    Luke Walton
    Kevin Ollie
    Jay Wright
    Roy Williams
    Tom Izzo
    John Calipari
    Ettore Messina
    Jeff Van Gundy
    David Blatt


According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, Jeff Hornacek is also expected to be on the Lakers’ list.

The Lakers are expected to begin contacting candidates in the next day or two, sources said.

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 26, 2016 8:18 am    Post subject:

Kupchak Discusses Search for New Coach
by Joey Ramirez - nba.com

After compiling a 38-126 record in two years as head coach of the Lakers, Byron Scott was informed that his contract would not be extended, thus ending his tenure at the reins of the team.

General Manager Mitch Kupchak, who helped make the decision, spoke with Time Warner Cable SportsNet’s Chris McGee about Scott and the search for a new coach.

Below is a full transcript of the interview:

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 26, 2016 8:19 am    Post subject:

Lakers head coaching search isn’t short of candidates
by Keith Rivas - lasportshub.com

With Byron Scott now out of town, the Lakers head coaching search is ready to make this off-season interesting

The Los Angeles Lakers had two of their worst seasons in franchise history under the tenure of Byron Scott, but that was just scratching the surface when it came to issues presented by the former head coach.

There was a serious questioning of the younger talent on the team, and it often led to situations that didn’t sit well with the fans.

D’Angelo Russell and Jordan Clarkson spent most of this season trying to make a name for themselves, while Julius Randle got to display what he’s capable of when playing healthy.

Still, for whatever reason, Scott didn’t seem to put much effort or emphasis on them as the building blocks of the future.

While this attitude didn’t directly lead to issues off of the court, a team without faith in their coach isn’t a ship worth sailing.

Scott was fired by the team on Sunday, per Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.

While the Lakers seem like they’re headed in the right direction, a new turn can be a testing time for any franchise — Los Angeles is no exception.

Mike Bresnahan of the LA Times reports that there is a plethora of candidates looking to become the next Lakers head coach.

Lakers expected to compile a "long list" of coaching candidates to replace Scott. “It’ll be a lot,” said a person familiar with the process.

As a report from Lakers Nation indicates, the top candidates to replace Scott in Los Angeles are Luke Walton, Jeff Van Gundy, and Kevin Ollie, among others.

Other reports from Lakers Nation say that both former Lakers star Derek Fisher and current San Antonio Spurs assistant Ettore Messina are in the running, with Los Angeles just recently getting permission to interview Messina.

That’s a lot of information to handle, so here’s a look at each of the candidates and why they would or would not be the right person for the job.

Continued....
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