Lakers: Byron Scott Continues to Fragment His Team
In the Lakers’ dominant win over the Suns and their most impressive performance to date, there was a dark side
During the Los Angeles Lakers’ huge win over the Phoenix Suns on Sunday night, it was clear that Julius Randle was unhappy with his coach’s decision to sit him. Byron Scott chose to sit Randle amidst a poor shooting night for the youngster, who missed all four of his shots on the night. However, Randle played with great energy and secured 12 rebounds in only 15 minutes of play, including back-to-back key offensive boards directly before being pulled from the game.
After being benched, both Julius Randle and D’Angelo Russell appeared frustrated on the sideline, and for good reason. Despite being key parts of the Lakers’ future, Scott has consistently cut down their playing time, instead giving seemingly endless run to guys like Lou Williams and Brandon Bass.
The brusque head coach surprised no one by making matters worse in his post-game press conference. Rather than downplaying the incident as team business or even accepting responsibility for the issues, he instead followed his usual trend of blaming his personnel. Citing Randle’s defensive effort as the reason for his benching, Scott stood by his decision—although he did say that others in that unit also shared the blame.
If he is to ever coach a team that is actually strong on defense, he will have to get up the courage to hold everyone accountable, and not just those he feels comfortable pushing around.
This is another example of Byron Scott using a blatant double-standard in evaluating his players. Lou Williams and Kobe Bryant have been exceedingly poor on the defensive end throughout the entire year and Scott has continually rewarded them with additional playing time. If he is to ever coach a team that is actually strong on defense, he will have to get up the courage to hold everyone accountable and not just those he feels comfortable pushing around.
Unfortunately, Byron Scott didn’t stop there, instead continuing the issue at the team’s practice on Tuesday. In his comments there, Scott discussed what he sees as “immaturity” on Randle’s part, going as far as to say he need’s to “grow up.”
Comments like this are irritating for fans, particularly when said fans are forced to watch a coach whose decisions are consistently and obviously wrong. However, if Scott continues to behave this way in the media, it could go far beyond an annoyance and have disastrous consequences for the franchise.
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Free-agent players are not going to be drawn to a team where they do not feel that the coach will have their back and, if the players currently on the roster begin to feel the same way, things could get even worse. The young players on the Lakers are players the franchise hopes to retain for years and that sort of commitment relies on a good relationship and mutual trust between the players and organization.
The Lakers front office needs to make a statement and establish that Byron Scott’s behavior has been unacceptable. Whether that comes in the form of a private meeting, a public statement, or simply his firing, something needs to be done soon. The Lakers organization must ensure that their head coach doesn’t destroy the team they are trying so hard to build.