With rumors swirling that Luke Walton will likely be fired by the Los Angeles Lakers after the season, it's could soon be time for the Purple and Gold to look toward the future and their next head coach.
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Following the team's 113-105 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night, their fifth loss in their past six games, the Lakers dropped to 30-34. More importantly, the Lakers fell 5.5 games behind the eighth-seeded San Antonio Spurs, as their playoff hopes dropped to just one percent, according to Basketball-Reference.
With Walton likely out after the season, CBS Sports' Raja Bell believes the Lakers' next head coach should be none other than Tyronn Lue. Lue had coached the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2016 until the beginning of the 2018-19 season and led LeBron James and the Cavaliers to the NBA title in 2015-16 after taking over for David Blatt as head coach midway through the season.
Bell's argument for why Lue would fit in as the Lakers' head coach has purely to do with his previous experience coaching LeBron.
"There's only one candidate in my opinion and it's Ty Lue. You can make an argument that any of those other guys are as good, or if not better, coaches than Ty Lue. But there's only one guy that's got LeBron experience and there's something to be said for bringing a guy in and for him having to acclimate to LeBron's demands and to the way LeBron wants to play ball. That's a certain style."
Bell continued to argue that Lue would be willing to adapt to LeBron and what it is he is comfortable doing on the floor -- a key trait when it comes to coaching the best player in the game.
"Coaches come in with their style. You know that if you drop T-Lue in that locker room with LeBron, it works. T-Lue can give up and concede some of the stuff he may want to do. LeBron might be willing to do the same for T-Lue. But, at the end of the day, they've done it before. If you're the Lakers and you're rolling into next season you do not want to waste 20, 25 games trying to figure out if LeBron works with your coach again. So, I am going out and I am getting the guy that I already know, without a doubt, works with LeBron and that's T-Lue."
Lue definitely had success coaching LeBron, but this was in a watered-down Eastern Conference. The Cavs made it to the Finals in all three of his seasons in Cleveland with LeBron, but they were vastly outmatched by the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals in 2017 and 2018 as they won just one game combined during both of those showdowns.
Furthermore, Lue led the Cavaliers to a 0-6 record in 2018-19 without LeBron before he was promptly fired. While Bell's analysis that Lue has had success coaching LeBron is true, there is no denying that fact, the Western Conference entering the 2019-20 season will likely be a whole different breed which could make things more difficult if the two are reunited in Los Angeles. Just ask LeBron, who is arguably still the NBA's best player and has made it to the NBA Finals in each of the past eight seasons as a member of the Eastern Conference.
LeBron hasn't missed the postseason since 2004-05 when he was 19 years old. He'll likely miss the postseason this season as a first-time member of the Western Conference. This is despite the fact that he's still averaging 27.0 points, 8.7 rebounds and 8.0 assists per game -- numbers that aren't much different from the 27.5 points, 9.1 assists and 8.6 rebounds per game he averaged last season.
Another possible head coaching candidate for the Lakers? None other than the Clippers' Doc Rivers, as CBS Sports' Rip Hamilton also suggested. However, Rivers is under contract with the Clippers heading into next season, meaning the Lakers would have to give up some sort of compensation in order to acquire Rivers.
Despite the fact that the Lakers will likely miss the postseason for the seventh consecutive year, they're still somehow the most interesting franchise in all of basketball and that won't change as long as LeBron is donning No. 23 for the Purple and Gold.
