A new head coach won’t magically change things for the Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers are coming off of the most disappointing season in franchise history that saw the team miss the playoffs despite the implementation of the play-in games. Firing Frank Vogel was the first domino to fall this offseason and it fell rather quickly, with reports of the Lakers firing him the same night the season ended.

The head coaching search is now on and there have been some interesting — and quite frankly, ridiculous — names attached to the Lakers. Nick Nurse was connected to the team despite being under contract with the Toronto Raptors, who would never trade him to LA regardless of him being a Klutch Sports guy. Doc Rivers and Quin Snyder were both early candidates as well, although that now seems unlikely, especially with Rivers shooting down the connection to the Lakers.

The runaway favorite has now become Mark Jackson, who last coached the Golden State Warriors in the 2014-15 season. Jackson’s name is always a prominent one during this time of year as he has patiently waited for his next chance.

Jackson has reportedly gotten the blessing from LeBron James, which is all he likely needs to be hired by the Lakers this summer.

Regardless of who it is, a new head coach won’t change anything for the Lakers.

The unfortunate reality of the Los Angeles Lakers is that the team is a mess both on the court and in the front office. This is nothing against Jackson as a head coach, but hiring him is not going to change much of anything. If he was the head coach of the 2021-22 Lakers then the results would have pretty much been the same.

Even the best coaches in the league would struggle to fix this team with the depth issues and egos on the roster. Russell Westbrook has downright refused to change his style to help this team and then played the victim in his exit interview saying that he never got his chance this season.

His contract is still on the books and outside of being an awful fit on this roster, he also keeps the team from adding depth. LA can shuffle the minimum players around all they want, the depth next season is going to look the same as this past season.

Plus, LeBron calls a lot of the shots anyway and if the Lakers are hiring the coach he wants, then he will still have the power that he has on the team. Vogel simply became the scapegoat for an awful season where he was probably the least to blame.

As far as Jackson is concerned, he really has not done much as a head coach in this league. He coached the Warriors right before the team’s rise to prominence and there are some that think he deserves more credit for that team than Steve Kerr. However, it does not change the fact that the Warriors thought the team would be better if they hired someone who had never been a head coach before after just three seasons with Jackson.

Plus, those Warriors teams made every head coach look good. Remember when Luke Walton was the interim head coach and had an insane record? How did he pan out as a head coach?

Again, that is not to say Jackson can’t be a good coach, he absolutely can be. But it is not like the Lakers are hiring a Ty Lue or Erik Spoelstra who are proven in this league. We can’t pretend like Jackson will come in and simply fix everything.