Lakers News: Byron Scott Has Surprising Pitch for Next LA Head Coach

The former Showtime Laker weighs in.

Mar 18, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Lakers head coach Byron Scott reacts during the / Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports

The Los Angeles Lakers are in the midst of looking frot their next head coach in franchise history. It will be a long and extensive search that could last for a while, and it must. The Lakers brass cannot mess this one up again, as they have had seven head coaches in the last 13 years. 

It's been a long and tumultuous road for the Lakes since then, and bouncing from coach to coach is not a good recipe. There are many good head coaching candidates in the open market at the moment. Some candidates are more realistic than others, like Mike Budenholzer, JJ Redick, and possibly Kenny Atkinson, to name a few. However, some out there are not so realistic, and you could put current Lakers superstar LeBron James in that category. While the odds of James becoming a coach are as close to zero as can be, former Lakers champion Byron Scott believes that should be the team's direction.

Scott made his case in his latest appearance on FS1's Undisputed. 

"My recommendation for the next Laker head coach, and out of the eight or nine names that I've heard and his name wasn't on there, is make LeBron [James] the coach," Scott said. "Make him the coach. It's obvious to me, at least, that he's making a lot of decisions that are going on in this organization, from a coaching standpoint to a player standpoint. So if you're going to allow him to make those decisions, sit on the bench and make those decisions as well, be the head coach." 

.@official_bscott says LeBron should be the Lakers next head coach 👀 pic.twitter.com/hCoqabF6be

— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) May 8, 2024

That sounds all fine and dandy, but there's one problem: current NBA players can no longer be player coaches. After the salary cap was instituted in 1984-195, the NBA prohibited teams from employing a plyer-coach. 

So unless James retires and wants to coach the Lakers instead, that would work. However, James cannot play for the Lakers and coach them simultaneously. Moving back to the realistic options, according to DraftKings Sportsbook, Budenholzer is the favorite to be the 29th Lakers head coach in franchise history with +225 odds. Following Budenholzer is JJ Redick at +260, Tyronn Lue at +290, Kenny Atkinson at +550, and Charles Lee at +3000 to round off the top five. 

James is out of the question, and it might take a while before the Lakers narrow it down.