Lakers: Byron Scott a Victim of His Own Choices
One of Byron Scott’s biggest mistakes has been to over-promise and under-deliver.
Whether a person is a politician or a head coach, to raise the public’s hopes to impossible heights only to dash them is the quickest path to unemployment. Byron Scott has inexplicably committed this mistake seemingly at every turn with the Los Angeles Lakers, and it’s unclear why. The rhetoric he has employed has played a huge role in his fall from grace in the public, and will play an even larger one in his eventual termination.
No one can claim that Byron Scott stepped into an ideal situation. Signing on with a team built around an injury-plagued superstar, who is notoriously difficult to work with, with a lack of assets and continuity is no coach’s dream. It wasn’t all bad, however; Scott already had built-up goodwill with the fans from his playing days and, because the team clearly needed a rebuild, pressure should have been low.
This was where Scott made his first mistake. Armed with a roster that had little chance of making the playoffs at all, and a game plan that did the roster no favors, Scott immediately spoke of championships. Making a championship the goal, rather than simply making progress, guaranteed his first season would be a failure.
Scott has continued this trend into his second season as head coach. Coming into the preseason with an impressive group of young players, Scott dismissed several promising young players in order to build a rotation largely composed of veterans. He openly admitted that he was prioritizing winning now over the future, and current production over potential:
Lakers HC Byron Scott on young players: "I’m not always thinking about necessarily developing them. I’m always thinking a/b trying to win."
— Baxter Holmes (@Baxter) November 5, 2015
Again, Scott set himself, and his team, up for absolute failure. The veterans he retained or added, with the exception of Metta World Peace, have been far worse than the young players they replaced. Worse yet, the team has won only two of its first 14 games, crushing any dreams of reaching the playoffs.
Still Scott refuses to face reality, continuing to bench his promising young players like Larry Nance Jr. and D’Angelo Russell for downright bad veterans in Brandon Bass and Lou Williams. He has also refused to acknowledge that his veterans are playing poorly, instead stubbornly sticking to his flawed strategies. These decisions are creating tension within the team, as players react to his clearly unfair and illogical comments.
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These decisions could have far-reaching impacts on the organization. Denying young players minutes can stunt their development, especially when there is little to learn by watching the veterans on the team. Additionally, the Lakers hope to retain the services of these young players for years to come, and these conflicts could jeopardize these plans.
Scott was given a choice of two paths when he arrived in Los Angeles. He could have been the voice of reason, wisely guiding his team and fans alike through a difficult rebuild, focusing on the future and building teams to reflect that. Although Scott has claimed that the fans are being impatient, most fans would have been perfectly content the Lakers young core develop alongside players like Robert Upshaw and Jabari Brown. Setting modest goals, like allowing the youth to develop and make mistakes together, and meeting them would have made Scott a far more popular figure in Los Angeles and around the league.
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Instead Scott has been the epitome of the delusional mentality the Lakers organization has showed: too concerned with pride and the past to truly commit to a very necessary rebuild. The Lakers can’t afford to have this attitude anymore and, because of this, they can’t afford to have a coach like Byron Scott.