The Los Angeles Lakers are still searching for the team’s next head coach and we are starting to get clarity on the situation. Thankfully, Doc Rivers is sticking around with the Philadelphia 76ers, so we do not have to worry about him in LA despite the team seemingly being so desperate to hire him.
Meanwhile, the Lakers have already conducted a second interview with Terry Stotts, who reportedly is intrigued by the idea of working with Russell Westbrook. Darvin Ham is another candidate who is picking up steam, although he has no prior head-coaching experience.
This is obviously a very important decision for the Lakers, even if most of the problems last season had nothing to do with the head coach and had more so to do with front office mistakes. In making this big decision, the Lakers cannot chase the big name and make a splashy hire.
Instead, the Lakers need to take inspiration from the Celtics.
The Celtics are currently in the Eastern Conference Finals and are one win away from making the NBA Finals with a 3-2 series lead. Boston is led by first-year head coach Ime Udoka, who has taken practically the same roster from last season and turned it into the team with the best chance of winning the title as we sit here today.
Udoka was not a splashy hire and he was the opposite of a household name among NBA fans. However, the Celtics did the necessary homework and hired someone who could actually elevate the players on the roster. That is exactly what Udoka has done.
The Lakers need to learn from that, do their homework, and avoid hiring someone who has previous head coach experience just because it is the “safe” thing to do. For my money, Ham is the best option for the Lakers to hire and someone like Stotts would just be another mediocre head coach to add to the list.
Stotts has made the playoffs a ton in his career, sure, but he has had very limited success. He has made it out of the second round of the playoffs just one time and his all-time playoff record is 23-44. Is that really who the Lakers should be hiring to coach the team?
If the team does the groundwork then it wouldn’t be a risk to hire Ham or whatever other assistant deserves a shot at being a head coach. Simply getting a retread head coach because it is the “safe” option is the worst thing this franchise could go.
But then again, when is the last time the front office made a good decision?