With the season drawing to a close, the Los Angeles Lakers are going into the summer without a playoffs berth and no real sense of direction. Who will the Lakers bring in to replace the vets on one-year contracts? Will they bring in a second star? Will Luke Walton be fired?
Per California State University, Fullerton alumnus and New York Times writer, Marc Stein the Lakers have a preference for a new head coach.
I’m told that the Lakers, who are widely expected to dismiss the beleaguered Luke Walton at season’s end, are also big fans of Dallas’ Rick Carlisle.
With Rick Carlisle still under contract with the Dallas Mavericks, the chances of the Lakers making a move for the current Mavericks coach is slim to none. He is currently having his contract revised, extending his contract past the 2022-2023 season.
It seems as though the only way that the Lakers could have a shot at Rick Carlise would be to trade picks to Dallas, like Jason Kidd (who is rumored to want the Lakers job) or Doc Rivers (who the Lakers are also interested in) both of whom went from one team to another for draft picks.
There is no telling whether or not Carlise would want the Lakers job and the media circus following it. There are greener pastures in Dallas and the thought of having a healthy Kristaps Porzingis along with Luka Doncic might just be too good to pass up.
The most likely candidate to be the next Lakers head coach, according to Stein, would be former Cleveland Cavalier head coach, Tyronn Lue.
Tyronn Lue spent 2.5 years coaching LeBron James in Cleveland, including leading the team to a championship in 2016, overcoming a 3-1 deficit in the NBA finals against a 73-9 team with the first unanimous MVP.
Here is hoping that when summertime comes around, the Lakers do their due diligence (ha) and try to scope out the best possible candidates available before making their decision.
With how last summer went after the signing of LeBron James, the Lakers need to reevaluate and see what needs to be done to turn the franchise around (again).
