The Los Angeles Lakers are a bit of a mess right now. They're sitting at home on the first day of the 2019 NBA Playoffs, and no longer have a president or head coach after Magic Johnson abruptly stepped down in bizarre fashion and the team subsequently fired Luke Walton.
They're wasting no time trying to fill the latter position. According to reports from ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Yahoo's Chris Haynes, the Lakers have reached out to multiple candidates, including current Philadelphia 76ers assistant coach Monty Williams and former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Ty Lue. They're expected to talk with both candidates soon.
Williams' last head coaching position was when he led the New Orleans Pelicans from 2010-15. He's since been an assistant with the Oklahoma City Thunder, took an executive position with the San Antonio Spurs, and is now back on the bench with the Sixers. Williams has a strong reputation around the league for being able to connect with players.
As for Lue, he's been unemployed since being let go by the Cavaliers just a few games into this season. The connection here is obvious, as Lue led the Cavaliers for multiple seasons when LeBron James was there in his second stint in Cleveland, including their title-winning season in 2016.
With LeBron already in place for three more seasons, and desperately needing to get back to the playoffs, it's not surprising that the Lakers would look towards known commodities in their coaching search. However, it is a bit strange that they're rushing to hire a coach before filling Johnson's front office position.
As we've seen over the years, it's important that the coaching staff and front office be on the same page, and usually, that works best if the executives are in place first and hire a coach they know they can work well with. Given some of the problems the Lakers themselves have had with their front office in recent years, this may not be the wisest order of operations.
