The Los Angeles Lakers are back to square one, or whatever it is they want to call this restart of the coaching search that started in mid April.
After failing to come to terms with former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Ty Lue on a deal to make him the next coach of the Lakers, the once-storied franchise is reaching out to other veteran head coaches to potentially hire them. But according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, one of the new candidates has a strong connection to the Lakers front office.
During an appearance on SportsCenter, Woj was asked by Scott Van Pelt to speculate about who the next Lakers coach could be and he floated out the knowledge that former Grizzlies and Nets coach Lionel Hollins is a ‘favorite’ of Kurt Rambis.
Rambis, former Laker legend and husband of Jeanie Buss confidant Linda Rambis, has seen his power grow within the Lakers organization.
Whatever happens with the coaching search will likely be a good indicator of who is truly running the show in Los Angeles. There are lots of names and lots of smoke screens, but they’re still without a head coach. Who it is might tell us a lot about where the power in the Lakers truly lies.
Hollins has a career coaching record of 262-272 (.491), with his best season coming in 2013 when the Grizzlies made it to the Western Conference Finals.
