Lakers: Byron Scott’s Criticism Must Extend to the Veterans

Lakers head coach Byron Scott‘s “tough as nails” act is quickly being exposed as fraudulent.

After each and every game, Byron Scott seems to cite lackadaisical or soft play by his team. Despite consistently focusing on the mistakes of his young players, Scott has completely ignored the poor play of veterans. The problem with this is, the better players on the team have consistently been the younger players, while the poor play of certain veterans has cost the Lakers games.

After the latest game against the Trailblazers, Scott harped on the Lakers poor transition play, being outscored 18-2 in that phase of the game. He highlighted a lack of effort as the primary cause of that issue. However, he completely ignored another important factor in creating transition opportunities for opposing teams, ill-advised jump shots.

When a team shoots poorly from the outside, particularly early in the shot-clock, it leads to an increased number of long rebounds and therefore and increased amount of transition opportunities. The primary culprits of these types of mistakes are not the young players at all, but Kobe Bryant and Lou Williams.

Both of these veterans have shot the ball extremely poorly from the three point line, with their percentages in the low twenties. In fact, these two players have shot the ball horribly in general, with comically low shooting percentages in the low thirties.

Despite this horrendous play, Byron Scott has failed to express any issue with their play, and has not adjusted the game plan to lessen their offensive opportunities.

It takes guts to admit that your hall of famer is playing poorly, and that it’s hurting your team

It doesn’t take guts to call out young players, or players like Nick Young, in the media. It takes guts to admit that your hall of famer is playing poorly, and that it’s hurting your team.

Scott has shown he is perfectly willing to throw young players, and those he simply doesn’t like, under the bus, but has ignored the issues caused by veterans.

Serena Winters recently tweeted a quote of Scott’s that illustrates his deference to Bryant, even to the detriment of the team itself.

Byron Scott essentially says that Kobe’s experience gives him the right to hurt the team with selfish play, but when younger, and far more efficient, players look for their own shots, it is a problem.

It’s completely unacceptable for a team’s coach to be releasing statements containing such backwards and illogical reasoning. These sorts of comments could easily hurt the morale of young players, and creates a culture that outside players will be wary of joining.

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It’s the coaches responsibility to be unbiased and make decisions based on what is best for the team. Quotes like this reveal the height of bias towards his veterans, and potentially even fear of Bryant’s power within the organization.

Another example of this selective criticism is Brandon Bass. Since being brought in in free agency, Bass has played fairly poorly. His propensity for turnovers has hurt the team on offense, while his inability to protect the rim and rebound effectively has been a big problem for the defense. Despite this, Scott still gives Bass consistent minutes, even playing him in favor of Hibbert down the stretch of the game against Portland.

Some of Bass’ struggles can be attributed to the fact that he is a natural four playing almost exclusively at the five. However, Scott continues to play him ahead of Tarik Black, an excellent rebounder who is far more comfortable at the center. This points directly to the other person Scott neglects to criticize, himself.

Despite instituting an ineffective offense, consistently playing his players out of position, and giving them inconsistent and poorly managed minutes, Scott rarely blames himself for losses. Good leaders admit when they are at fault, and Byron Scott appears perfectly happy to blame anyone but himself.

It’s time for Byron Scott to stop using his young players as scapegoats and tell the truth: Kobe Bryant and Lou Williams have been hurting the team badly to this point and their poor play should be addressed.

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If Byron Scott is going to win the trust and respect of the fans and his team, he needs to be honest about both the performance of his team, and himself.