Given the choice between an outsider and an ex-player, the Lakers choosing Tyronn Lue is only to satisfy LeBron James. His bromance with Lue is built on mutual respect, but there’s a conflict of interest and controlling owner Jeanie Buss doesn’t see it.
The Lakers are badly in need of a new coach to fill the job vacancy, but they are more concerned with pleasing James. They are in dire need of someone with excellent coaching credentials, but they want to keep their star player happy if anything.
This team’s best option at the time would have been to hire somebody who is NBA certified and not just anybody with connections to the Lakers and James. One can easily surmise that they have inevitably pursued Lue to reunite with his old friend. And while James would call the shots, Lue would play a constructive but small role in supervising the bench.
Who, when and why is not clear yet, but the Lakers are reportedly in the process of working on a contract agreement that would make Lue the next coach. The only explanation for this is that the purple and gold keys have been handed over. The Lakers are now LeBron’s.
Buss doesn’t have control of the franchise her dad left behind after his death. Pelinka is a puppet on strings and doesn’t have final say on personnel. And if hired, Lue wouldn’t be given the biggest voice in the room. In accordance with James’ wishes, we might as well give more credence to the story.
There’s no official word yet, but this deal sounded like a no-brainer when the coaching position opened up. Lue is a coach who has earned the trust of players around the league. In Cleveland, he utilized the personnel available to him on the roster extremely well and then saw in-game adjustments necessary to solidify his team’s chances. It’s a preferred choice for the Lakers because he has received praise for the Cavaliers’ success.
So we can probably assume that the Lakers have found their guy. The whole saga of an overlong search for a coach has exhausted L.A. fans. Everyone grew more antsy and weary in the waiting, but now the wait seems to be over.
The Lakers’ management thinks Lue could be the right coach for James, and he certainly would receive a slew of praise from his superstar. But the Lakers, too, are satisfied and pleased with how the search has gone. There was this widely popular notion, since Luke Walton parted ways, that the Lakers would proceed toward an offer for Lue.
It would be a bit much for him to handle, but he’s fortunate in some ways to have a player-coach in James. It’s still to be determined whether he can pull the Lakers out from the bottom of the pile. This kind of job comes with high expectations. By coming to the Lakers, Lue will eventually feel the mounting pressure much like James.
He is not the best name on the list, but that’s okay with James running the show in Los Angeles. It’s his way or no way, and that’s okay with him because he has obviously been given too much power. The roster is full of useful talent, but a solid core of young players has struggled to find the chemistry. Add the fact that James needs Tyronn as much as Lue needs LeBron.
The Lakers have done everything to cater to their All-Star. But James hasn’t lived up to his billing since coming over from Cleveland and he mostly disappointed in his maiden season as a Laker. They have a habit of attempting to turn former players into coaches. They have had a losing record in each of the past six seasons, and they have missed the playoffs for six straight years. Lue, the former Laker player, will become the team’s fifth head coach in the past eight years.
He was pegged as the betting favorite. His stint with the Cavaliers was relatively short despite coaching Cleveland to a championship. In just two seasons, he compiled a record of 128 wins and 83 losses in his career with the Cavs. He has experience coaching the Lakers superstar. After the 0-6 start without in 2018, the Cavs fired him as he didn’t even make it through the season’s first month without LeBron.
Believe it. It’s certainly a lock that he will become a Laker again, especially when he has the green light from LeBron, the engine that powers the Lakers, to hop into the driver’s seat.
