As news continues to break about the mess of a coaching search happening in Lakers-land, it’s becoming more and more clear that Kurt Rambis is a major player in the organization. Despite being hired as just an adviser, Rambis is becoming increasingly powerful in front office decisions, not to mention that he’s been almost forced into the team’s coaching staff.
So as the Lakers continue to interview coaching candidates, Rambis’ influence in the organization is clearly going to play a role. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, that could come to fruition in the form of Lionel Hollins, one of the five rumored candidates to be the next head coach who is evidently a “favorite” of Rambis:
Here’s @wojespn with what happened with Lue and the @Lakers pic.twitter.com/zSCKCr94Hr
— Stanford Steve (@StanfordSteve82) May 9, 2019
Hollins hasn’t been in the league since 2016. He had some success setting up the grit and grind era for the Memphis Grizzlies but has otherwise not been a revelation. Even in his prime coaching years, Hollins’ philosophies were outdated; they just happened to work with the Grizzlies roster makeup. In 2019, it’s hard to see Hollins creating a successful offense around LeBron James.
The Lakers reportedly interviewed Frank Vogel on Thursday. Jason Kidd and Juwan Howard have already been interviewed. Mike Woodson is another reported candidate. It’s not exactly a murderer’s row of great coaches but Hollins is among the more peculiar choices.
