Category: Los Angeles Lakers Blog

Byron Scott plans to start Jeremy Lin during final stretch of season

Look. This wasn’t going to be the Lakers’ season, even if Kobe Bryant was healthy. Now, what does that point have to do with this particular story? Not a lot. It just needed to be said, for the sake of general overall perspective. As for Jeremy Lin, here’s the Los Angeles Daily News blog reporting:

Lakers coach Byron Scott will soon make a move that Jeremy Lin supports.

Scott plans to start Lin at point guard, likely with 10 games left in the season. The timing is not definitive. The Lakers (17-46) will host the Atlanta Hawks (51-14) on Sunday at Staples Center featuring Jordan Clarkson at point guard for the 22nd consecutive start. The Lakers will also feature Wayne Ellington (shooting guard), Wesley Johnson (small forward), Jordan Hill (power forward) and Tarik Black (center), a lineup that has started for the past three contests.

But Scott plans to start Ryan Kelly at power forward at some point and Lin at point guard, the latter scenario seeming more definitive on the timing.

“I want to see how much of a difference it is now as opposed to the start of the season,” Scott said after Sunday’s morning shootaround at the Lakers’ practice facility in El Segundo.

Byron Scott does not think Kobe Bryant will eventually become a coach

Here’s the Los Angeles Daily News reporting Lakers head coach Byron Scott’s views on Kobe Bryant’s eventual post-playing days:

Scott then quickly reiterated his doubts Bryant would ever coach.

“He would be like Earvin (Johnson),” said Scott, referring to Johnson’s brief Lakers coaching stint that entailed a 5-11 record in the 1993-94 season. “Kobe would be in the locker room like Earvin throwing stuff and going crazy. It’s a tough job. Those two guys, as competitive as they are and as much as they won back on their day, both of them would be beating up players.”

Scott conceded he threw “a tantrum or two” early in his coaching career that included stops with the former New Jersey Nets (2000-04), former New Orleans Hornets (2004-09) and Cleveland Cavaliers (2010-13).

Scott said he has since mellowed. How did that happen?

“Just the experience of knowing these guys don’t do it the way we did it,” said Scott.

Lakers officially eliminated from playoff contention

Here’s ESPN Los Angeles reporting what was inevitable:

The Lakers were eliminated from playoff contention Tuesday, marking their earliest elimination since the franchise moved to L.A. before the 1960-61 season.

The Lakers were officially knocked out when the New Orleans Pelicans defeated the Brooklyn Nets.

They later beat the Detroit Pistons 93-85 to improve to 17-46.

Their elimination marks only the seventh time in franchise history that the Lakers will miss the postseason and only the second time that they’ve missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons (1974-75 and 1975-76).

Kobe Bryant wants Rajon Rondo to join Lakers this summer

Would you want to play with Kobe Bryant? In his prime, sure. What about now, as his career winds down? Depends on the other teammates, we’d assume. If Rajon Rondo has to make a decision and it’s going to be Rondo, old Kobe and a rebuilding project, that’s probably not too attractive to Rondo. Anyway, here’s ESPN Los Angeles reporting:

Rajon Rondo knows Kobe Bryant is recruiting him to join the Los Angeles Lakers when Rondo becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer.

And the Dallas Mavericks point guard is obviously flattered to hear Bryant admit as much publicly, as Bryant did in late January.

But Bryant’s recruiting efforts appeared especially strong Sunday, when he appeared on the Lakers sideline for the first time since his season-ending shoulder injury Jan. 21 — just in time to watch Rondo’s Mavericks beat the Lakers 100-93.

“When he speaks, it speaks volumes,” Rondo said after finishing with eight points, nine assists, four rebounds and three turnovers. “It’s an honor and a compliment that he’d want to play with a guy like me, but right now, I’m focused on winning a championship with the Dallas Mavericks.”

Would Rondo want to play with Bryant, who will enter his 20th, and likely final, NBA season in 2015-16?

“I’m focused on what I have to do right now,” Rondo said. “It’s impossible to play with Kobe right now.”

Julius Randle returns to court for non-contact basketball drills

Here’s the Orange County Register with an update on a promising Lakers rookie who has gained at least a partial NBA education this season but won’t really begin until 2015-16:

Officially speaking, Julius Randle’s rookie season will have consisted of 14 minutes of basketball before it ended with a cruel twist and a bad break.

Unmeasured by statistics, is the vast majority of his season that has consisted of two surgeries, multiple stints on crutches and monotonous hours on an elliptical machine.

Finally, Randle was back on the court with the Lakers on Monday, more than four months after breaking his tibia on opening night, and two months after surgery to replace a screw in his right foot.

While Randle will not play again this season, the Lakers are slowly adding to his workload, which on Monday meant working with the coaching staff on some post moves and shooting.

No more Ronnie Price this season for Lakers

Here’s the Los Angeles Times reporting on Lakers guard Ronnie Price, whose time with the team may be over since he’s currently injured, and will be in need of a new contract this summer:

Guard Ronnie Price, whom Lakers Coach Byron Scott has considered one of his toughest players and best defenders, is done for the rest of the season after having successful surgery to remove bone spurs and bone chips from his right elbow Wednesday.

The Lakers said Price, 31, is expected to be out approximately six to eight weeks, but Scott said that actually means Price will “be out for the year” considering the Lakers have only 26 regular-season games left.

Price, who’ll be an unrestricted free agent this summer, appeared in 43 games for the Lakers and averaged 5.1 points and 3.8 assists in 22.8 minutes a game.

Lakers aware that the Kobe Bryant era is nearing its end

Here’s the Orange County Register reporting on a topic that will make us cry: That we don’t have a lot of time left to enjoy Kobe Bryant in the NBA. And the Lakers are very aware of this as they determine how to build their team for the future:

The days of the Lakers building a roster to satisfy the needs, and complement the style, of Kobe Bryant are gone.

Just three years removed from the blockbuster summer that brought Steve Nash and Dwight Howard to Los Angeles, one of the Lakers’ top basketball executives said circumstances have dictated that the organization change course.

“This team primarily has been Kobe’s team now for almost 18 or 20 years,” General Manager Mitch Kupchak said in a wide-ranging interview with media, “and we’re much closer to the end of those 18, 20 years than we are to the middle or the beginning. So at some point we have to start a new run.”

And while that will presumably include a 37-year-old Bryant next season, the Lakers are not simply planning on reloading this summer to make one more playoff push for the future Hall of Famer’s swan song.