I could start this article with a bad joke about breaking news…Tyronn Lue will be the next coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. But I won’t. The Lakers negotiations as of now have stalled with Tyronn Lue.
Negotiations between the Los Angeles Lakers and Ty Lue have reached an impasse without a deal to make him the franchise’s next head coach, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 8, 2019
The shock that is going around the NBA cannot be understated. At this point, no one can get a read on what is going on with the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s getting to the point that the piece I wrote weeks ago on how I would run the Lakers would get me voted the NBA’s Executive of the Year award next year. No doubt about it. Lakers fans, it is now that bad.
I truly believed Lue was the guy for the job about 30 minutes after the man was fired from the Cleveland Cavaliers. Look I realize that there were many rumors floating around because based on how the Anthony Davis trade negotiations went this season, no one can keep a secret. But the fact is that Ty Lue was supposed to be the next coach. There are two things that really need to sink in for Lakers fans.
Number one, Monty Williams did not want to coach the Los Angeles Lakers. Why? Because the Lakers continue to shoot themselves in the foot with the lack of execution that is exacerbated with arrogance. Instead of leaving the past in the past believing that this is the franchise everyone wants to be a part of, the Lakers continue to show the dysfunction that free agents and top-level executives have avoided for the last six years. At least that is what I got from the information from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on his podcast, “The Woj Pod”…
"“While LeBron, I do know he would prefer him (Lue) as head coach, I know this: He didn’t tell the Lakers ‘You have to do it.’ Because they were ready to move toward Monty Williams, and I think the Lakers never really took seriously the possibility he was going to take that Suns job, and he did, and I know it surprised them. “I think Williams came in a little more circumspect. He wanted to understand, with Phoenix and the Lakers, he wanted answers about … where the power is, where the influence is, who’s really making decisions … I think Monty looked it as just a little more, ‘I’m going to take the Lakers name off and say: What do I see here?’”"
If the Los Angeles Lakers really wanted Monty Williams as their next coach, they are showing themselves as a franchise that is not doing their due diligence to make sure they get the personnel they want. This started with the “forgone” conclusion that Paul George was going to sign as a free agent and has continued here.
Like Paul George last summer, the Lakers dragged their feet based on NBA reports. Based on the reputation of the issues surrounding the Suns, the Lakers assumed that Monty Williams would never accept a Phoenix coaching job with a turnover rate of most menial minimum wage jobs.
Oops…missed another one.
One league source said it appeared that Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka never expected negotiations could fall apart as they did because Lue didn’t have other offers. Lue was seeking a 5-year deal, believing his championship experience commanded it.
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) May 9, 2019
Furthermore, the Suns possibly saw something that the Lakers did not. If the Philadelphia 76ers under-performed in the playoffs, Monty Williams could have easily supplanted Brett Brown as coach.
Number two, Ty Lue was the only option as coach the Lakers have to clean up this nuclear meltdown of a franchise. Why? He’s the only one that would have looked past the fact that the front office is a mess. He doesn’t have to care because he has the backing of the team’s best player in LeBron James. There have been so many debates back and forth between myself and my colleagues why I think Lue is the best and ONLY choice the Lakers have to turn this around.
This is what the Lakers fans would have gotten from Tyronn Lue…