THE Official: Byron Scott Watch

[miggs]

The problem is firing Byron now would force their hand in hiring the next coach.

This current staff is pretty awful too. So I'm not sold on Mad Dog developing guys much better. To me, if they don't fire Byron, it's because they either want to tank, or want to hire a coach who is currently with a staff (Walton).

I tend to think the former, as I don't see Kobe listening to any changes from Walton and don't really see Walton as the guy who could tell Kobe to stfu and wait for his moment ala Roger Dorn in Major League 2

[miggs]

the good news is season tix holders will likely decline picking up their 2016-17 tix making it hopefully easier for those of us on the waiting list to snatch them up

[miggs]

for some perspective, last year around this team we were 3-11 en route to another 2 losses and one win to close out the month of november.

from wiki...

2014–15 game log

Total: 21–61 (Home: 12–29; Road: 9–32)
October: 0–3 (Home: 0–2; Road: 0–1)
November : 4–10 (Home: 2–6; Road: 2–4)
December : 6–9 (Home: 2–3; Road: 4–6)
January : 3–12 (Home: 3–6; Road: 0–6)
February : 3–7 (Home: 2–2; Road: 1–5)
March : 4–12 (Home: 2–5; Road: 2–7)
April : 1–8 (Home: 1–5; Road: 0–3)

[miggs]

More comparisons...

last year same time we were losing games by an average of 13.73 ppg at that point

this year same time 12.92 ppg

Lots of factors like injuries plagued us back then where as now we have everyone including the kobe most here thought would arrive, a fully broken down and worn out Kobe. The big difference is I feel last year despite the crappy roster, there was a clear cut pecking order. I don't see one this year, we always look like we're looking for some alpha out there to lead the young guys and kobe is just not who he once was and I highly doubt he ever plays at a higher level for a sustained period of time.

[crazyeights]

The problem is firing Byron now would force their hand in hiring the next coach.

This current staff is pretty awful too. So I'm not sold on Mad Dog developing guys much better. To me, if they don't fire Byron, it's because they either want to tank, or want to hire a coach who is currently with a staff (Walton).

I tend to think the former, as I don't see Kobe listening to any changes from Walton and don't really see Walton as the guy who could tell Kobe to stfu and wait for his moment ala Roger Dorn in Major League 2

I see almost no chance of Kobe returning next year, so really he wouldn't have to deal with Walton (in that scenario).

[crazyeights]

All of a sudden the world has come crashing down because we lost a game we were projected to get blown out in?

That's gotta be exhausting.

This is about a lot more than one loss. There are some very concerning signs coming from this team. It started in Summer League with a stagnant offense and hero ball and has carried over to the season. They've had a total lack of spirit since game 2.

And let's be clear: we had a cake schedule to start out. We're 2-12 and things are only going to get more intense from here. Last night was not a good barometer of the first month's growth. It appears we're on the fast track to having a lameduck coach and it's not even December, yet. That's not good for young players, in fact it's completely counter-productive to their development. This is how teams like the Warriors and the Clippers used to stay in the basement for decades: not develop young talent, not teaching them how to play the right way.

Complicating that we have such a leadership vacuum that you have the 20 year HOF veteran admitting that he was jacking up shots out of frustration, because he doesn't know the program.

If that's not rock-bottom, if that's not a call for alarm...then man, IDK what the hell is....

[dockingsched]

The effects that the stagnant iso centric offense is having on Randle are very concerning. For Russell, he has enough natural instincts to want to play the right way that I think once Scott goes away and/or a real system is implemented, Russell will be able to continue his development without missing a beat. Whatever bad habits he's seeing right now aren't going to stick imo.

Randle though, he has so many bad habits right now that he came into the league with and having them get further ingrained under Scott is disheartening. Its crazy that he's 2nd in the entire league in terms of % of iso's he runs. He has some nice passing skills, especially in the open court, but thats not being nurtured. Not so much for Russell, but for Randle, they need to put a system in place that doesn't highlight and reinforce all his worst qualities.

[miggs]

The problem is firing Byron now would force their hand in hiring the next coach.

This current staff is pretty awful too. So I'm not sold on Mad Dog developing guys much better. To me, if they don't fire Byron, it's because they either want to tank, or want to hire a coach who is currently with a staff (Walton).

I tend to think the former, as I don't see Kobe listening to any changes from Walton and don't really see Walton as the guy who could tell Kobe to stfu and wait for his moment ala Roger Dorn in Major League 2

I see almost no chance of Kobe returning next year, so really he wouldn't have to deal with Walton (in that scenario).

while I would agree, I have to hear it first. I'm done hoping to see things happen only to see them fail with this franchise. The day kobe's retirement is announced I'd say Luke deserves an interview.

[miggs]

All of a sudden the world has come crashing down because we lost a game we were projected to get blown out in?

That's gotta be exhausting.

This is about a lot more than one loss. There are some very concerning signs coming from this team. It started in Summer League with a stagnant offense and hero ball and has carried over to the season. They've had a total lack of spirit since game 2.

And let's be clear: we had a cake schedule to start out. We're 2-12 and things are only going to get more intense from here. Last night was not a good barometer of the first month's growth. It appears we're on the fast track to having a lameduck coach and it's not even December, yet. That's not good for young players, in fact it's completely counter-productive to their development. This is how teams like the Warriors and the Clippers used to stay in the basement for decades: not develop young talent, not teaching them how to play the right way.

Complicating that we have such a leadership vacuum that you have the 20 year HOF veteran admitting that he was jacking up shots out of frustration, because he doesn't know the program.

If that's not rock-bottom, if that's not a call for alarm...then man, IDK what the hell is....

the bolded portion essentially is what has led me to think this roster may not be able to deal with no changes at all until the season's over, for that reason along with my suspicion that the young core is losing faith in him, as me thinking we may see a Byron fired before even a trade occurs with this team but we'll see what happens I guess

[TyCobb]

The effects that the stagnant iso centric offense is having on Randle are very concerning. For Russell, he has enough natural instincts to want to play the right way that I think once Scott goes away and/or a real system is implemented, Russell will be able to continue his development without missing a beat. Whatever bad habits he's seeing right now aren't going to stick imo.

Randle though, he has so many bad habits right now that he came into the league with and having them get further ingrained under Scott is disheartening. Its crazy that he's 2nd in the entire league in terms of % of iso's he runs. He has some nice passing skills, especially in the open court, but thats not being nurtured. Not so much for Russell, but for Randle, they need to put a system in place that doesn't highlight and reinforce all his worst qualities.

That's because their offense always come from in-bounding the ball. If they stayed in front of their man on defense and create stops then they can do the open court thing where they create mismatches.

[Slava]

The effects that the stagnant iso centric offense is having on Randle are very concerning. For Russell, he has enough natural instincts to want to play the right way that I think once Scott goes away and/or a real system is implemented, Russell will be able to continue his development without missing a beat. Whatever bad habits he's seeing right now aren't going to stick imo.

Randle though, he has so many bad habits right now that he came into the league with and having them get further ingrained under Scott is disheartening. Its crazy that he's 2nd in the entire league in terms of % of iso's he runs. He has some nice passing skills, especially in the open court, but thats not being nurtured. Not so much for Russell, but for Randle, they need to put a system in place that doesn't highlight and reinforce all his worst qualities.

The Randle issue is quite the cause for concern, I'd like to see how he'd operate if instead of isolating he could catch the ball on the roll and try to finish against a scrambling defense like Dwight got to do under Stan Van Gundy. He's so good at finishing through contact, has good passing skills and he could be a completely different monster in that offense. Instead his tunnel vision is bring magnified by asking him to create offense off a standstill against a set defense.

[iamworthy]

The effects that the stagnant iso centric offense is having on Randle are very concerning. For Russell, he has enough natural instincts to want to play the right way that I think once Scott goes away and/or a real system is implemented, Russell will be able to continue his development without missing a beat. Whatever bad habits he's seeing right now aren't going to stick imo.

Randle though, he has so many bad habits right now that he came into the league with and having them get further ingrained under Scott is disheartening. Its crazy that he's 2nd in the entire league in terms of % of iso's he runs. He has some nice passing skills, especially in the open court, but thats not being nurtured. Not so much for Russell, but for Randle, they need to put a system in place that doesn't highlight and reinforce all his worst qualities.

I actually think Byron has been directing his dissatisfaction of ball movement towards Randle.

[miggs]

The effects that the stagnant iso centric offense is having on Randle are very concerning. For Russell, he has enough natural instincts to want to play the right way that I think once Scott goes away and/or a real system is implemented, Russell will be able to continue his development without missing a beat. Whatever bad habits he's seeing right now aren't going to stick imo.

Randle though, he has so many bad habits right now that he came into the league with and having them get further ingrained under Scott is disheartening. Its crazy that he's 2nd in the entire league in terms of % of iso's he runs. He has some nice passing skills, especially in the open court, but thats not being nurtured. Not so much for Russell, but for Randle, they need to put a system in place that doesn't highlight and reinforce all his worst qualities.

most games i feel despite even a nice showing like the other night 13 pts 13 rebs, I still feel he's already been figured out by opponents and not really worried about as we all hoped despite Randle getting some notice from the NBA for his strength, which everyone know was Randle's biggest trait. I just don't see the type of growth from this team I expected as this point, I just don't think we're as bad as this record states.

[miggs]

The effects that the stagnant iso centric offense is having on Randle are very concerning. For Russell, he has enough natural instincts to want to play the right way that I think once Scott goes away and/or a real system is implemented, Russell will be able to continue his development without missing a beat. Whatever bad habits he's seeing right now aren't going to stick imo.

Randle though, he has so many bad habits right now that he came into the league with and having them get further ingrained under Scott is disheartening. Its crazy that he's 2nd in the entire league in terms of % of iso's he runs. He has some nice passing skills, especially in the open court, but thats not being nurtured. Not so much for Russell, but for Randle, they need to put a system in place that doesn't highlight and reinforce all his worst qualities.

I actually think Byron has been directing his dissatisfaction of ball movement towards Randle.

I'm sure once he does tell Randle that directly Randle will challenge Byron about Kobe's lack of ball movement except that Pistons game.

[miggs]

Honestly. it's hard to think someone like Byron Scott can be so stupid. I have to agree with Crazy eights, we're keeping Byron to complete the multi-year tanking contract he signed and doing all we can to keep that top 3 pick, why else would things be going as they are? lol

[spaceballer]

Honestly. it's hard to think someone like Byron Scott can be so stupid. I have to agree with Crazy eights, we're keeping Byron to complete the multi-year tanking contract he signed and doing all we can to keep that top 3 pick, why else would things be going as they are? lol

I think that's it. I also find the contract structure very intriguing.

Byron's contract does not end when Kobe's does, but he may well be fired at the same time that Kobe is gone. Byron is signed to one more guaranteed season after Kobe's contract runs out.

There are two ways to look at it.

1) Tank for asset in year one. Tank for asset in year two. Then, in recompense for the tanking during Kobe's twilight, Byron's given the opportunity to use the post-Kobe year to play with the new assets (that he got from tanking) to try to prove himself as a coach that the Lakers may want to keep on and exercise the 4th year team option on.

2) Tank for asset. Tank for asset. Fired at end of season to ride off into the sunset with Kobe. Byron gets to keep the severance package of an extra year's guaranteed pay as a lucrative reward for taking the hit with the tanking services for his beloved franchise in a time of rebuild need.

Or maybe I'm just thinking in too convoluted a fashion and he just sucks. Then again, those elements aren't mutually exclusive.

[Michael Lucky]

At some point when a person is making things worse and worse for your team you just bite the bullet and find someone else no matter how badly you might be viewed for it. Maybe management should have just went with their gut and not tried so hard to appease the fanbase with the hiring when it was quite clear they didn't want this guy with the idiotic number of interviews that was needed with him before his hiring.

[LApwnd]

There is reasons to fire byron even if we have no clear replacement.....he's not good for the young guys and they are developing bad habits. Some of the things byron says during post games interviews are asinine, like last season when he said he wouldnt want some of the players in a trench hole with him cause he thinks they'd shoot him in the back. What moron would think a player would waant to hear that from their coach? I NEVER seen phi head coach make such nasty comments with all the losing they doing

[ratedrdb]

Firing Scott can't come fast enough. Followed by Kobe off the bench. Kobe shoots 30%th vs starters and 48%9th vs bench. Duh that's a easy one.we gotta play Russell n Randle n Clarkson each 35 minutes a night and go pick n roll 70 % on off, get any coach that can do this and we will improve

[dockingsched]

If you expect Kobe to be sent to the bench then you expect far too much from Byron Scott or whichever coach you anticipate being brought on in the event Scott is let go.