What Should The Los Angeles Lakers Do With Byron Scott Moving Forward?

Apparently no coaching job is safe in professional basketball — even if you bring success to the team.

Monty Williams (formerly of the New Orleans Pelicans) and Scott Brooks (formerly of the Oklahoma City Thunder) lost their coaching gigs despite leading their team to the edge of something great in the regular season and beyond.

The race for the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference side of the playoffs between the Pelicans and Thunder was the most exciting late-season underdog competition we’ve seen in a while, but somehow both coaches involved are now out of work.

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Is this a sign of things to come around the league?

What about in Los Angeles?

The Lakers got put on the back burner pretty badly this season as they dealt with and are still figuring out the consequences of being historically awful — but Byron Scott still has his job.

Los Angeles won a team-worst 21 games this season and somehow were not the worst team in the Western Conference — although second worst really isn’t something to be proud of either.

The mentality of having to rebuild has been on the mind of the Lakers faithful and front office since things started to go south in 2014-15, and now that we know Kobe Bryant will be on his way out following next season, the only things will get better for L.A. is if the team is rebuilt from the bottom up — but not completely.

Jordan Clarkson has been a good asset for the Lakers and constructing the future of the team around him would be the right move, but the question still remains about who the best man is to lead the purple-and-gold clad troops into battle.

Is it Byron Scott?

I’d hate to promote a Mark Jackson-style scenario, as we saw unfold in Golden State before Steve Kerr came into the picture, where he was fired from his post in what seemed to be a knee-jerk reaction, but at least he did good with his team.

Scott’s done just the opposite.

Just like the college prospects that will be available in this year’s 2015 NBA Draft, there are a plethora of college-level coaches that could make the jump to the NBA that would be a better fit in L.A. than Byron Scott has proven to be.

Don’t believe me? Before you could blink twice, Billy Donavan from the University of Florida was tapped to take Scott Brooks spot while the Pelicans are rumored to be looking at grabbing Chicago’s Tom Thibodeau pending on how the Bulls do in their series against the Cavaliers.

Scott had success when he was part of the New Orleans Hornets but has jumped around since then. In his career, he’s had head coaching gigs with New Orleans, Cleveland, and New Jersey — he also shared the floor as an assistant head coach in Houston.

But those teams were different. This is the Lakers.

Bottom Line: Scott is no longer the best candidate for the job

A new energy, feel, and level of production is going to be needed sooner or later in Los Angeles if the Lakers expect to get back to their prior glory. New draft picks, possibly some good free agency pick ups, and a new coach are sometimes just part of the process.