After Darvin Ham was fired this afternoon, a report from The Athletic indicated the Lakers would be interested in Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue if he were made available.
Appearing on NBA Today with Malika Andrews (Twitter video link), ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski downplayed the possibility of Lue becoming the Lakers’ coach, suggesting he could remain with Los Angeles’ other team for the foreseeable future.
“I don’t believe it’s realistic based on this: Ty Lue still has a year left on his contract,” Wojnarowski said (hat tip to RealGM). “And the Clippers are determined to do a long-term deal with Ty Lue, I’m told. They want him to be their head coach for a very long time. That’s a conversation that will happen after the playoffs are over, but they love the job he did this season. They love the job that he’s done there.
“This is an organization that, by all indications, however this series (with Dallas) ends up, wants to re-sign Paul George, James Harden. Try to improve that roster around those two and Kawhi Leonard. And Ty Lue will still be the head coach for them.”
Wojnarowski’s full story regarding Lue, George and Harden can be found right here.
The Lakers tried to hire Lue back in 2019, Wojnarowski noted, but the two sides couldn’t come to terms on a contract. At the time, it was reported that Lue was seeking a larger salary.
Wojnarowski also reiterated a point he previously made, that the Lakers might not go after the biggest available names, such as Mike Budenholzer, for financial reasons.
“You may see other candidates who’ve had success as head coaches, a Kenny Atkinson, a James Borrego, coaches of that ilk certainly could be part of this conversation,” Wojnarowski concluded.
Warriors assistant Atkinson, formerly lead coach of the Nets, was another Lakers candidate recently mentioned by The Athletic. Borrego, Charlotte’s former head coach, is a new name to watch. He’s currently an assistant with the Pelicans.
According to The Athletic’s Jovan Buha (Twitter link), Celtics assistant Charles Lee is a candidate for the Lakers’ coaching vacancy as well.
Maxey cap hold is $13 million
76ers have $64 million under the cap
George max is starting at $49 million
$15 million is not enough to sign Hield, Batum and Melton
You don’t want George. He disappears in big playoff games. Past his prime and too pricey. Sixers are better building depth. Id go after DeRozen and Malik Monk. Resign Harris at a team friendly contract or go after Klay Thompson.
Like in this series. 34 to old.
Agreed. George was bad in this series against the Mavericks. Forget about Thompson.
DeRozan isnt 5% of the playoff performer that Paul George is, PG led 2 teams to the conference finals while Derozan always goes missing in the playoffs since Toronto!!
They can re-sign Hield, Batum, Maxey and Melton with Bird rights if they want to. They can have all of those guys on the roster. They sign PG with cap space first, and then sign the rest of the guys with Bird rights. They will also have the Room Exception to use, which they can sign one player or multiple players total for up to three years and $25.2 million. The 76ers will sign another player as well to use up the rest of their cap room first. The 76ers will be major players in free agency this year.
The Lakers are so damn cheap.
Lakers are currently a joke and won’t contend with a 40 year old LeBron who at this point in his career is only chasing records and banking big bucks.
lol at keeping Harden. These teams will never learn.
Agreed. Better to find some young hungry type of players than all these fading stars who are in the twilight of their careers.
How can a team possibly build around 3 highly paid, horrible playoff players?
Bud is available, what the heck are these teams waiting for …….. Bud is far better than Lue, Vogel, Atkinson and a whole lot of active and inactive coaches.
Paul George took so many bad shots in the series against the Mavericks. Too much time dribbling his cross overs and then hoisting up long contested jump shots. Understand that George has been a great player but too old and too expensive.
“ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski downplayed the possibility of Lue becoming the Lakers’ coach, but suggested he could remain in L.A. for the foreseeable future.”
Becoming Lakers coach and staying in LA isn’t exactly mutually exclusive.
Yeah, that was the point but the phrasing was sort of confusing so I’ve tweaked it.
In other words…
Balmer is happy to spend if there are well known names brining in ticket sales…
Wins? Nah that’s another teams problems…
Lakers should have LeBron as player coach so he can’t stop blaming others for the unbalanced roster
Being willing to commit isn’t always a virtue, particularly when it’s being pursued out of fear of the alternatives.
A long term commitment to Ty Lue? Are they kidding? This could only be out of fear that he moves across town.
PG13 and Harden represent more difficult decisions. Their contracts are up (PO for PG13 aside) and KL has already been extended. Their drafts are compromised for the next 5 years. Their cap situation has improved, but that’s only if they walk from both. I’m guessing the don’t really “want to” sign these two, but the fear of moving forward with KL and some cap space, with their new arena, is greater than the fear of the status quo.
Do old teams like the Lakers and Clippers every look at the teams still in the playoffs and see that none of them have more than one player over 30 in their starting lineup? This isn’t 2017 anymore, all those guys are no longer in their prime and get hurt all the time.