NBA Rumors Round-Up
NBA Rumors: Lakers’ Coaching Candidate List is Long
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
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SOURCE: @SteveKerrTNT would be interested in speaking to the Lakers about their now vacant head coaching position.
— Ben Higgins (@BenHigginsSD) May 1, 2014
ex-NBA coach Lionel Hollins has interest in the Lakers head coach opening, a source said. Hollins coached Memphis to West Finals last season
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) May 1, 2014
A candidate Lakers management and Kobe Bryant share a fondness: Euro legend Ettore Messina. He impressed as assistant under Mike Brown.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 1, 2014
Biggest mistake Lakers made on coaching front: Passing over Steve Clifford as interim coach after Mike Brown's firing. He would've won job.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 1, 2014
Lakers say in their statement that although no timetable has been established, the search for a replacement coach will begin immediately.
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) May 1, 2014
Via Twitter
News broke late Wednesday night that Mike D’Antoni had resigned as the Lakers coach because they refused to pick up his option for the 2015-16 season. He did not want to coach next season without at least another year of security and a clear commitment from the front office that they believed in him. He didn’t get it and now the Lakers are looking for what will be their fourth head coach in three seasons.
A popular candidate not listed above is Byron Scott, who is a former champion with the Lakers during the Showtime era and one of the few players who would come in and immediately have Kobe Bryant’s respect. Scott was Bryant’s mentor when he first came into the league.
The Lakers have had a difficult run the last 14 years with coaches not named Phil Jackson. It’s one of the reasons why Lakers top basketball executive Jim Buss has such a bad reputation with the fans, because he’s continually missed with his head coaching hires (Rudy Tomjanovich, Mike Brown and Mike D’Antoni). There is going to be a lot of pressure for him to make the right move here and with the Lakers having cash to spend in free agency, a proven Laker legend like Scott may be the safest way to go.
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The Chicago Bulls will do everything within their power to trade Carlos Boozer before they seriously consider using their amnesty provision on the final season of his contract.
The problem with trading Boozer is not that there aren’t potential suitors out there for him. Even with a salary of $16.8 million next season a team would likely be willing to take him on as long as the price tag in terms of assets they had to send out wasn’t too high because the free agency class of 2015 is poised to be so great. However, with it almost a foregone conclusion that the Bulls are going to use the Amnesty provision on him in order to create max cap room to potentially make a run after a top-tier free agent like Carmelo Anthony, they have no leverage in negotiations. They’re almost solely banking on a team with cap space being willing to absorb his contract, and that probably isn’t going to happen. So, expect the Bulls to be stuck amnestying him while the teams that would be legitimately interested in trading for him just wait until he hits the free agent market.
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Los Angeles Clippers guard Jamal Crawford has won the NBA’s Sixth Man Award for the second time in his career, according to sources familiar with the voting.
via ESPN
This is the second time that Crawford has won the award, making him one of four players all-time to bring home the hardware twice. He has been an intricate part of the Clippers’ success this season, averaging 18.6 points a game off of the bench.
