Lakers Rumors: Luke Walton Reportedly Interested in Adding Brian Shaw to Staff

New Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton is looking to put together his staff, and he reportedly has his eye on Brian Shaw.  

That is according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, who noted Shaw was formerly an assistant coach under Phil Jackson and head coach of the Denver Nuggets. While Shaw has a respectable resume, Wojnarowski pointed out that Lakers executive vice president Jim Buss wasn’t keen on the 14-year NBA veteran as a head coaching possibility before the team eventually settled on Byron Scott.

Wojnarowski said of Buss that “many in the league doubt his enthusiasm over having another Jackson loyalist rejoining the coaching staff.”

Lakers team president Jeanie Buss is engaged to Jackson.

According to Basketball-Reference.com, Shaw was an assistant for the Lakers from 2004 to 2011.

During that span, the team reached the NBA Finals three seasons in a row and won two titles (2008-09 and 2009-10). Los Angeles also made the playoffs six times during the seven-season stretch with Shaw as an assistant, which likely sounds enticing to a Lakers fanbase that watched the team miss the postseason and finish a combined 65-181 the last three campaigns.

Walton is also familiar with Shaw after playing for the Lakers from 2003 to 2012, experiencing firsthand how the former assistant interacts with players in practice, on the bench and in huddles. Shaw must have done enough to earn Walton’s respect, given Wojnarowski’s report.

In addition to his Lakers experience, Shaw was an assistant for the Indiana Pacers in 2011-12 before becoming the Nuggets' head coach for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons. He finished with a 56-85 mark in Denver before he was fired in March 2015.

Shaw also played for the Lakers from 1999 to 2003 and helped them three-peat alongside all-time greats Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.

Los Angeles is fresh off its worst season in franchise history (17-65) and is in desperate need of a turnaround. It has some young building blocks in place with D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson and gets to keep its 2016 first-round draft pick if it falls in the top three. (Otherwise, it goes to the Philadelphia 76ers.)

The Lakers will add a head coach in Walton who is accustomed to winning as an assistant for the Golden State Warriors the past two years. He also guided the defending champions to a 39-4 start while head coach Steve Kerr was recuperating from back surgery during the first half of the 2015-16 campaign.

Walton and Shaw were with the Lakers during some of the franchise’s most successful seasons. It makes sense that the new coach would want to bring a familiar face from that era back as he attempts to quickly rebuild the once-proud team that has 16 championship banners hanging in the rafters.