With the Los Angeles Lakers first season with LeBron James resulting in abject failure, many believe that Luke Walton will be relieved of his duties as head coach of the franchise. Who the team would hire to replace him is a different question, entirely.
The name recently thrown into the rumor mill is Jason Kidd who was fired by the Milwaukee Bucks last summer and replaced by Mike Budenholzer. While Kidd was deemed as a “serious” candidate by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, his colleague Stephen A. Smith (yes, take it with a grain of salt) says the Lakers have made it clear they have no interest.
Nevertheless, Kidd was asked about the opportunity to coach James in the purple and gold by Rachel Nichols on The Jump and did not mince words about wanting the gig.
Following transcribed by Vinciane Ngomsi of Yahoo Sports:
“I think when you look at the Lakers as a whole, it’s a franchise that is one of the best in the world — not just in the NBA, but in the world,” Kidd explained. “And so, if you ever have the opportunity to wear the purple and gold, you can’t turn that down — as a coach, as a player — because they’re all about championships.”
It’s funny that Kidd is publicly campaigning for a job that is not even available yet (as he did to get the job with the Bucks), especially given that at this point in his career, he can’t really turn down offers to coach any team.
Kidd’s tenures with the Nets and Bucks were failures. Just look at what Milwaukee has done this season by replacing him with Budenholzer and barely changing the roster. As a head coach, he has routinely made erroneous decisions at the end of games that have cost his team wins and has not demonstrated any tactical prowess that would make him an upgrade over Walton. That’s before even getting into the off-court history that gets forgotten.
This was always the issue with the Lakers front office seemingly wanting to force Walton out. The Lakers’ head coach made plenty of mistakes and has a share of the blame for how the season turned out. There may be no option but to cut ties with him. But the options available to replace him do not inspire much confidence and until the Lakers build a great team, it won’t matter who they get to man the sidelines.
