4 Outside-the-Box Head Coaches Lakers Should Target to Replace Darvin Ham

LeBron James

This one was suggested by former Lakers coach Byron Scott. He said LeBron James should be the player-coach for next season.

This is clearly as outside-the-box as it gets. Once a common occurrence in the NBA, no player has also coached their team since Dave Cowens did for the Boston Celtics in the 1978-79 season. The most memorable example of the player-coach experiment was when Bill Russell led the Celtics to two championships in the late 60s.

There are reasons why this is not a thing anymore. Coaching in the NBA is extremely demanding. You have to focus on player development, manage personal relationships with your coaching staff and players, watch tape, come up with gameplans, rotations, and adjustments. Doing this while you are also doing whatever is necessary to maintain your own level of play is close to impossible.

It is already a big challenge for James to maintain his incredible physical and athletic tools at this stage of his career. No 39-year-old player has ever done what he has done on a basketball court last season.

Is adding head coaching duties on top of that workload realistic?

If anyone can do it, it's obviously LeBron James. He is one of the savviest basketball minds to ever play the game. There is no doubt that he would make a great head coach in the league. Plus, he has a big say in who becomes the head coach anyway, so maybe it makes sense to cut out the middleman.

As fun and exciting as this would be, it seems even less plausible than the other names mentioned.

More Lakers news and rumors: