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3 Los Angeles Lakers head coach candidates with existing ties to LA

By Jason Reed

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 12: President of the Los Angeles Lakers Jeanie Buss speaks during a banner unveiling ceremony for the Los Angeles Lakers 2020 NBA Championship before the game against the Houston Rockets at Staples Center on May 12, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 12: President of the Los Angeles Lakers Jeanie Buss speaks during a banner unveiling ceremony for the Los Angeles Lakers 2020 NBA Championship before the game against the Houston Rockets at Staples Center on May 12, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. /
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(Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)
(Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images) /

3. Steve Clifford

Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach during the 2012-13 season

Steve Clifford has the most coaching experience of any person on this list as he has been coaching basketball in some capacity since the 1980s. Granted, his first coaching gig in the 80s was at the high school level and he did not crack the NBA level until 2001 when he was hired to be an assistant with the New York Knicks.

Clifford was an assistant on four different staff before he got his first head-coaching gig in the NBA. After a two-year stint with the Knicks, Clifford followed Jeff Van Gundy to the Houston Rockets and then was brought onto Stan Van Gundy’s staff with the Orlando Magic.

Clifford was then hired to be an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers prior to the 2012-13 season. That lasted just one season as the Charlotte Bobcats hired him to be the head coach prior to the 2013-14 season. He has been a head coach ever since.

While he has not gone to the best franchises, Clifford’s results as a head coach have been anything but impressive. In five seasons with Charlotte, his team posted a winning record just twice and he never made it out of the first round of the playoffs.

Clifford then was hired by the Orlando Magic and it was more of the same. They posted a 42-40 record in the first year and got worse every year, concluding with a 21-51 record in the 2020-21 season. Clifford did not coach during the 2021-22 season.

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I am not sure this hiring would make any sense for the Lakers as Clifford has not had any real success in the NBA as a head coach and has never dealt with the starpower as a head coach that the Lakers have.

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