Lakers, Byron Scott Negotiating Deal

7:44pm: The Lakers have yet to make a formal offer, but Scott is their top candidate and they’ve begun negotiations with the hope of striking a deal with him soon, according to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. Scott is believed to have been vacationing in the Bahamas, Bresnahan also writes, which suggests that he hasn’t been directly involved in the talks.

1:58pm: The Lakers are unlikely to give Scott a deal comparable to the five-year, $25MM packages that Steve Kerr and Derek Fisher received this summer from the Warriors and Knicks, respectively, Shelburne tweets.

1:09pm: The Lakers have offered their long-vacant head coaching position to Byron Scott, and the two sides are negotiating toward a deal, reports Chris Broussard of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Scott has seemingly been the front-runner in the team’s search for the past month.

Former coach Mike D’Antoni resigned April 30th, but the Lakers were never in a hurry to replace him, content to find out their position in the draft order and later see how their forays into the free agent market would turn out before making their choice. Scott, who interviewed at least three times for the job, has reportedly been out in front of a pack of other serious candidates that included Lionel Hollins, Mike Dunleavy and Alvin Gentry, all of whom also received interviews. Lakers assistant Kurt Rambis also appeared to a strong contender, though it isn’t clear whether his talks with the team had amounted to a formal interview. The Lakers also gave George Karl more consideration than previously reported, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com.

Scott and the Lakers are still in the early stages of negotiations, according to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (on Twitter). Still, the offer is the closest the Lakers have come to resolving their coaching situation since D’Antoni stepped down. The 53-year-old Scott, who was out of coaching last season after the Cavs fired him at the end of 2012/13, has been speaking with former teammate Kobe Bryant in coach/player terms of late, as Broussard reported last month. Bryant said recently that he’d welcome Scott, with whom he crossed paths on the 1996/97 Lakers, were the team to hire him. Scott is 416-521 in parts of 13 seasons as an NBA head coach.