Byron Scott is the head coach of a rebuilding Los Angeles Lakers team that desperately needs its young guns to develop and learn and thrive and form something resembling a foundation for the future.
And yet, Scott doesn’t seem to acknowledge that’s the team he’s coaching.
A lot of criticism has been thrown Los Angeles’ way to start the 2015-16 season, most of it centered around Kobe Bryant’s shot selection and cruddy efficiency. But the Lakers’ biggest issue, in some ways, comes back to Scott, who, per his own words, continues to coach this group like it has a shot at winning anything special.
From ESPN.com’s Baxter Holmes:
Generally speaking, Scott said the goal is winning games, first and foremost.
“That is the reality,” Scott said. “But the second part of that goal is you’ve still got to develop the young core of guys that you have. That’s my job, to try to win basketball games and in the meantime try to develop young people.”
He added, “I’m not always thinking about necessarily developing them. I’m always thinking about trying to win. I’m always thinking about trying to win. The development part comes secondary to that, but in practice and everything is where you really work on the development part.”
There’s nothing inherently wrong with Scott’s approach. The average NBA coach probably would say something like that. But the Lakers aren’t an average team. They’re caught in the middle of the Kobe era and the future, with little reason be there.
Internal development should be among their top priorities right now, even if they don’t plan on rebuilding through the draft (this year’s pick will be sent to Philly if it falls outside the top three) and are instead relying on free agency. Lou Williams and Nick Young and Kobe’s corpse won’t be attractions other free agents sign on to join. They’ll join the Lakers, if they join them at all, because they’re confident in their direction, and D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson should be part of that direction.
The Lakers don’t have anything to play for without them. At least they can find silver linings in losing now if it’s on the backs of Clarkson and Russell and Randle. Giving shots to Kobe and minutes to Williams doesn’t have that same effect. So while Scott might think he’s coaching this team the right way by, and this is being generous, maintaining some balancing act, he’s wrong.
The Lakers are, again, in no position to balance competing with rebuilding. And if Scott is trying to prove that they are, they’re actually something worse than they should be: a bad team unwilling to move forward.
