Rounding Up the Reasons Los Angeles Lakers Should Fire Byron Scott
Byron Scott’s second season as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers was even worse than the first, when they set a franchise record with 61 losses. Heading into their Friday night contest against the New Orleans Pelicans, they're at 62 losses with four games left in the year.
From Halloween to April Fools’ Day, each day seemingly delivered a new controversy: Scott’s off-putting obsession with machismo, D’Angelo Russell’s infantile performance art, Julius Randle’s broken jump shot, Kobe Bryant’s distracting melodrama—the list goes on. This entire year has been a steady avalanche of interference.
All the team’s problems do not lead back to Scott. He didn’t build the roster or know on opening night that Kobe would railroad the organization’s short-term objective—meaning their clear, albeit shortsighted intention to win basketball games—by announcing his retirement.
But Scott’s inability to handle what he should be able to—nightly effort, execution, scheme, player development, minute distributions, etc.—was, and continues to be, a big part of the problem.
Of course, Scott’s job is to play the cards he’s dealt, and Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak has dealt him a losing hand. Instead of experimenting with NBA Developmental League call-ups or making any move at the trade deadline to open up a roster spot, there was silence.
But the best coaches extract juice from the driest fruit. Scott didn't.
Squandered Player Development
As a rebuilding organization, the Lakers’ No. 1 priority should be developing Russell, Randle, Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr., Tarik Black and Anthony Brown. That’s it. To Scott’s credit, Clarkson, Randle and Russell will finish first, second and third in total minutes played. Nance will finish eighth, and Black may not crack 500 minutes.
But sometimes it feels as if those first three youngsters wound up atop the minutes list by accident. Russell came off the bench in 32 of his 76 games. Randle came off the bench in 21 of his 77. Instead of pushing them through adversity, Scott kept his core on a short leash.
Both players have made noticeable strides since opening night, but is that because of Scott’s tough love or in spite of it? It's hard to say. Would they have been better off playing through adversity against opposing starting lineups and learning from their missteps on the fly?
Before the All-Star break, Russell spent many a fourth quarter on the sidelines, limiting his experience and potentially damaging his learning curve. This isn't the end of the world, but it remains a head-scratcher looking back, considering the Lakers are still the worst team in the Western Conference.
Strategic Struggle
At this point in the season, it’s fair to question whether L.A.’s offensive system stunted the young core's growth. All in all, it’s been an iso-heavy plan of attack this year, with only marginal improvements to ball movement.
No team attempted more contested three pointers than this one, and no team averaged fewer secondary assists, per NBA.com/Stats.
Defensively, the Lakers have allowed the most points in the paint and the third-most fast-break points per game.
These were issues on opening night that festered throughout the year. And ultimately, we never saw a change that should give Lakers fans much hope heading into next season.
Despite averaging 6.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game, Roy Hibbert has played in all but one game this year. Out of every player who appeared in at least 60 games, Hibbert’s minus-17.8 net rating ranks dead last.
Bryant and Randle come in second- and third-worst, respectively.
Questionable Lineups
The thought of inserting Black into the starting lineup was apparently never possible, or even experimenting with Randle at center and letting him feast against slower defenders. Small-ball has dissolved over the past few weeks, with Scott reaching into his back pocket for lineups that feature three non-shooting bigs at once.
Nance, Ryan Kelly and Brandon Bass appeared on the floor at the same time in five games since the All-Star break. That’s nonsensical.
Another relatively minor example: Earlier this week, Scott abruptly removed Bass and Lou Williams from L.A.’s rotation. From a team-building perspective, neither veteran is a good fit, even though both have been remarkably consistent and professional throughout the year. They provide more production than the money they’re owed, but each player's signing was a mistake.
Benching Bass and Williams for younger pieces always made sense, but it took Scott until April to figure it out. “I’ve talked to both those guys about [getting benched]; in case something crazy happens, they’ll be available and ready to play,” he said. “But right now I’m going to stick with Tarik coming in and playing more minutes, then I’m going to stick with a three-guard rotation for a little while.”
A big bowl of too little, too late.
Scott was put in a terribly uncomfortable spot, but those are the breaks in a league with 30 teams existing on 30 separate life cycles. Not everyone can have a ton of talent, and the Lakers are at the ground floor trying to work their way up.
That’s an unfortunate situation for any coach to be in, but Scott managed to make his a lot worse than it needed to be. It’s an uphill climb no matter what, but Scott unnecessarily steepened his ascent.
All quotes in this article were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Stats courtesy of NBA.com.
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