Los Angeles Lakers coach Byron Scott is not on the hot seat.
Right now, it seems his seat is actually pretty comfortable.
Despite coaching the Lakers toward one of the NBA’s worst records, and despite allowing Kobe Bryant to shoot himself into the unflattering history books, and despite doling out insufficient playing time to Los Angeles’ youngsters, and despite flashing a general disdain for present-day tenets, Scott remains in good favor with the team’s from office—or so he says.
From the Los Angeles Daily News‘ Mark Medina:
As the Lakers finished practice earlier this week, coach Byron Scott and general manager Mitch Kupchak talked near center court. Scott reported he and Kupchak have “been talking almost every other day” throughout the Lakers’ 2-12 start. …
Yet, Byron Scott said he still senses support from Kupchak and Lakers executive vice president of basketball personnel Jim Buss. Scott is in the second-year of a four-year contract worth $17 million, with a team option for the final season.
“We still understand that this is a process,” Scott said. “We have a lot of young guys on this team that we feel will be very good players. But it’s not going to happen in a month. It’s going to take some time. It might take a year or two.”
To Scott’s credit, the Lakers really can’t begin to rebuild until Kobe has moved on. It’s not a slight at Kobe, who, while taking an unnecessary number of shots, continues to acknowledge the importance of youngsters like Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson and D’Angelo Russell. It’s just a fact. The way this team is coached and viewed with Kobe is just different. And it won’t change until he’s officially retired.
Not that there’s any arguing in favor of the job Byron Scott is doing. Neither Randle nor Russell has shown profound improvement, and his reliance on Lou Williams and, to a lesser degree, Nick Young eats into the minutes totals of Clarkson and Russell.
At the same time, the Lakers are now contending for a bottom-three record. And that could allow them to keep their top-three-protected pick, which is owed to the Philadelphia 76ers. If they’re able to emerge from this season with a chance at drafting another cornerstone, as well as plenty of cap room, they’ll have the ability to improve a great deal in a short amount of time.
That’s not going to save Byron Scott’s job down the line. He feels like a placeholder in so many ways, someone hired to see the Lakers through three to four years of dark days before eventually ceding control to a more innovative name.
For now, though, the Lakers are chasing LSU’s Ben Simmons. And Scott is just the man to lead that loss-loaded charge.
