Sports Time Radio

When the Los Angeles Lakers signed LeBron James the team was expected to re-claim it’s spot among the elite of the NBA. Unfortunately for James and the Lakers things went from bad to worse.

The season didn’t go anywhere near as expected as James played in just 55 games due to injury. That was the least amount of games he’s ever played in during the regular season in his career. James also couldn’t find a fit with the young core of players that the Lakers had assembled and he did his best to get them shipped off in a trade for Anthony Davis that didn’t come to fruition.

Even with the addition of the best player in the NBA the Lakers finished 37-45 and missed the playoffs for the 6th year in a row.

To no one’s surprised Luke Walton was fired as head coach and there was a report earlier in the week that Rich Paul who runs Clutch Sports for James wanted Walton removed very early this past season.

Apparently there was a dinner where James and his business manager Maverick Carter sat down with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to discuss certain things one of which was the state of the Lakers. While these three sat at one table it was reported that Paul was at another table within ear shot of the three. Now there’s no way to knw what was actually talked about, but this seems a bit off to me.

Now after the Walton firing things got even weirder for the Lakers. Magic Johnson who was team President just up and quit without telling anyone. Since Johnson’s departure there has been a lot of finger pinting with Johnson blaming everything on General Manager Rob Pelinka.

Besides the signing of james the Lakers added some veteran players Lance Stevenson, Rajon Rondo, JaVale McGee and Tyson Chandler. According to reports these players where signed by Johnson and Pelinka without any discussion from the rest of the front office or coaching staff.

So how can the Lakers fix this? Apparently James has already spoken to Jimmy Butler and Kawhi Leonard about joining the Lakers as free agents this off season. I know you’d think this would be tamoering, but since it’s James nothing will come of it. Kyrie Irving has also talked about teaming up with James again and is another free agent the Lakers could sign. Add in the fact that they somehow magically moved up in the draft lotttery and now own the 4th pick which I’m still guess will be used in a trade for Davis and the Lakers are on their way back.

Aftr the removal of Walton from the head coaching position the Lakers had a difficult time finding someone to accept the job. Of course the first choice was Tyronn Lue who was the head coach whne the Cleveland Cavaliers won the NBA title with James a few seasons ago. For some reason the Lakers didn;t want to go any more than three seasons on a conttract for a head coach while the going rate in the NBA is five years. Lue declined the offer and the two side couldn;t come to an agreement.

The Lakers next choice seemed to be Monty Williams who was an assistant coach with the Philadelphia 76ers at the time. It was clear that Lue was the top chpice for the Lakers and Williams was just a secondary candidate; so while the Lakers where busy trying to workout their issues with Lue the Phoenix Suns swooped in and hired Williams as their head coach.

After whiffing badly on their first two attempts to hire a head coach they finally found someone to take over the team.

Former Indiana Pacers and Orlando Magic head coach Frank Vogel was named head coach of the Lakers. Vogel spent 6 seasons with the pacers and made the payoffs in five of those six seasons. His two seasons in Orlando didn’t go as well. The Magic never won 30 games in a season with Vogel as their head coach and they missed the playoffs in both of his seasons with the team.

Vogel acccepted the Lakers three year contract offer with the caveat being that Jason Kidd would be one of his assistant coaches.

Kidd spnt a season as the Brooklyn Nets head coach and then three and a half seasons as head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. Kidd was fired 45 games into the 2017-18 season by Milwaukee. Kidd made the playoffs his only season in Brooklyn and two of the three full seasons he coached with Milwaukee.

It seems as though the Lakers would’ve liked to have just hired Kidd as their head coach, but you wonder if his history had anything to do with them going about things the way they did. Will have to see if the natural order of progression has Kidd taking over the Lakers in three years or less.

The Lakers apppear to be a mess right now, but don’t expect them to stay that way. James should be able to recruit one or two top players to join him and I still fully expect them to end up with Davis one way or another. Would it shock you if the Lakers where competing for the top spot in the Western Conference next season?

I just saw a big deal made of the fact that we’re 100 days away from the kickoff of the NFL regular season. Does everyone miss football that much that this needed to be celebrated like it was?

I get that the NFL is still the top sport in most people’s opinion, but there was a lot of other sports going on. Maybe your not into baseball because it’s May and there’s still a long way to go. I understand that the NHL comes in at the bottom of the four major sports, but the Stanley Cup finals have started. By the way the Boston Bruins beat the St. Louis Blues 4-2 in Game 1; Game 2 is tonight. Also the NBA Finals are one day away from starting. I don’t know; maybe it’s just me, but I think we didn’t need to make this big a deal for the NFL being 100 days away.

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