Byron Scott Distrusts Players, Says They 'Would End Up Shooting Me in the Back'

At the merciful close of a 2014-15 season that has seen the Los Angeles Lakers put up as little competitive fight as any team in the NBA, head coach Byron Scott isn't holding back on the war metaphors.

“I got a sense of a whole lot of people I wouldn’t want to be in a foxhole with,” Scott told Mark Medina of the LA Daily News. “I think they’d end up shooting me in the back. I have a pretty good sense of the guys who will be around that we can build around and build together this process and go through it. I think we’ll be fine.”

Well then.

Scott didn't explicitly offer the names of his foxhole buddies or the more insubordinate members of his army, but it's not hard to figure out a few of them.

Eric Gay/Associated Press

The Lakers head coach has lauded Kobe Bryant all season long, even half-jokingly mentioning him as an MVP candidate recently, despite Bryant's negative statistical impact on his team and season-ending injury. It makes sense for a coach to align himself with the franchise's most important figure, though, so it's hard to fault Scott there.

It's similarly difficult to knock Scott for his vocalized frustration with Carlos Boozer, Jordan Hill, Jeremy Lin and Nick Young. He's knocked all of those players at some point this year, according to Medina, and Young has been particularly deserving of criticism (36.6 percent shooting from the field and an attention-hungry agenda that doesn't necessarily jibe with cohesive locker-room environments), even if the 29-year-old guard thinks he's been unfairly singled out.

An excerpt from Medina and Robert Morales of the Long Beach Press-Telegram captures the mood nicely:

"

"I’m used to it right now, hearing what Byron has to say," said Young, who is in the first season of a four-year deal worth $21.5 million. "I take it with a grain of salt."

Does Young take Scott’s words as valuable feedback?

"Nah," Young said. "I don’t know. I feel like it’s just a target toward me. It’s a little unfair. But it’s cool."

"

Scott is right to value players who are committed to winning, but it's difficult to build a successful, unified team when a coach is so willing to discuss divisions publicly. At the same time, it's not as though Scott has been given the ideal roster to lead this season.

In other words, there's plenty of blame to go around, as Matt Moore of Hardwood Paroxysm pointed out:

With the final year of Bryant's contract starting next season, the Lakers will look to put together one last competitive squad before starting fresh. That will mean looking into free-agent options, of course, but Young and his contract probably aren't going anywhere.

The foxhole will continue to be populated by a mixture of players, some of whom Scott trusts, some of whom he doesn't.

I guess the good news is that if Young ever does take a shot at his coach, the statistics say he'll likely miss.