The NBA Playoffs are in full swing, but the headline of the weekend came late Sunday night out of Staples Center. After the worst season in the storied history of their franchise, the Los Angeles Lakers parted ways with head coach Byron Scott. It brings to a close one of the darker eras in Hollywood as the club went 38-126 during his two years at the helm. His .227 winning percentage is the worst among all coaches of any tenure length in Lakers history. Many believe that the former Nets, Cavaliers, and Hornets coach only lasted this long to bring stability to Kobe Bryant’s final year in purple and gold. Alas, the Mamba’s swan song season was a train wreck in more ways than one and now the Byron Scott era is mercifully over in Los Angeles.
The hire of the former Showtime staple seemed to be a backup plan to begin with. After missing out on the Van Gundy brothers and passing on defensive wizard Tom Thibodeau, Scott was brought in before last season after being unceremoniously dismissed from the Cavaliers a year and change prior. While it was obvious he was coming into a rebuilding situation, nobody expected the subsequent two years to be as horrific as they were for a team with such a pedigree.
He was unlucky with injuries to Bryant and Julius Randle along with the messy departure of Pau Gasol. It also became increasingly more difficult to lure top caliber free agents to LA as the team lacked a true direction. Scott did himself no further favors on the sidelines, routinely mixing up rotations and lineups to the point of nausea for Lakers fans and management.
His blatant disregard for basketball analytics couldn’t have helped his cause much either. He even went as far as to say he didn’t believe in them in early 2015, something that clearly showed through his coaching moves. Shying away from the three pointer as well as a blind faith in the rapidly declining Bryant has made the Lakers one of the worst teams on either end of the floor during his two seasons in charge.
His old school mentality in regards to veterans versus youth may have been a fate sealer as well. As Bryant and Nick Young continued to have free reign in terms of their shot selection, the development of D’Angelo Russell, Larry Nance Jr., and Julius Randle were stunted by strangely timed benchings over the course of the campaign.
While Scott’s dismissal comes as little surprise, the timing has left the Lakers once again in a lurch as they search for their next coach. The two top coaching free agents, Tom Thibodeau and Scott Brooks, have signed with Minnesota and Washington respectively. They are also weeks behind other clubs like the Knicks and Kings who have been in talks with the other top candidates such as Luke Walton, Ettore Messina, Jeff Van Gundy, and David Blatt. Los Angeles’ front office has done themselves a disservice once again by waiting as long as they did to rip the band-aid off.
But by cutting bait with Byron Scott, the Lakers are at least looking towards a sunnier future for the first time in several years. The retirement of Bryant and this “non-renewal” of Scott gives the team the chance to turn over a new leaf as a franchise. Whether or not they squander that opportunity remains to be seen. But until the dust settles and a new head coach is named, Lakers fans can rejoice in the fact that the man responsible for the worst era of Lakers basketball won’t be able to hurt them any longer.