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In one way or another, things are only getting worse for the Los Angeles Lakers since Magic Johnson abruptly resigned from his position as Team President at the time. 39, an impromptu press conference.
A few days after Johnson pulled out without telling team owner Jeanie Buss, citing happiness as a reason, the Lakers fired head coach Luke Walton.
As of Friday, they still do not have a head coach and reports indicate that they have spoiled the process. At the rate things are going, the Lakers seem to be about to switch to what might require major changes.
The Lakers missed their best candidate in the lowballing
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported Wednesday that the first Lakers candidate, Tyronn Lue, had withdrawn from the process after both parties found themselves in deadlock negotiations.
According to Wojnarowski, the salary, the duration of the contract and the overall structure of the team played a role. Wojnarowski announced that the Lakers had offered Lue an $ 18 million, three-year contract to become the head coach, surprising Lue's camp, as they expected a five-year deal. This would have coincided with the expiry of the LeBron James Lakers contract, and reports indicated that Lue was offended to be seen as a mere coach for James.
Bill Plaschke, of the Los Angeles Times, reported that the Lakers offer was not only inadequate over the years, but that it also had little money. According to Plaschke, Walton and Monty Williams (another candidate the Lakers interviewed but forwarded) respectively signed $ 25 million over five years with the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns respectively. This off season is closer to the current NBA standard.
The team structure also seemed to disable Lue. Wojnarowski said the Lakers wanted information on Lue's assistant coaching staff. Among the candidates, Jason Kidd, whom the Lakers interviewed for the position of head coach and impressed the team. Such a configuration would have undermined Lue's authority in the locker room of the jump.
The whole Lue debacle shows how badly the Lakers handled the situation. Marc Stein of the New York Times reported that the Lakers preferred Lue to Williams, but some members of the organization were sensitive to the prospect of hiring Lue, believing that it would be perceived as soothing James, who played under Lue with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
According to Stein, the Lakers were essentially waiting for Williams, who had been hired by the Suns, and then moved on to Lue. The hiring of Lue seemed so inevitable that we saw Lue celebrate her birthday with a cake on the theme of the Lakers.
According to Wojnarowski, the Lakers are now fighting for a coach. There are other intriguing candidates on the market, but the organization has never been in favor of hiring future candidates.
An uncertain power structure
The Lakers still have an empty committee chair, and the optics of coaching research has not been favorable to general manager Rob Pelinka.
Ramona Shelburne's report from ESPN that Pelinka did not think that Lue would withdraw from the negotiations because he had no other offer. All this comes down to the fact that the Lakers are mistaken.
Bill Oram, of Athletic, wrote that the Lakers should hire a respected president to hire a general manager of his choice, thus ousting Pelinka from his post.
Team advisor Kurt Rambis and his wife, Linda Rambis, also played an important role in the off-season.
Amin Elhassan of ESPN said that Linda Rambis was considered a "shadow owner" in the league because she was close to Buss. Shelburne said Linda's role is only expanding.
Wojnarowski said Kurt Rambis played an important role in finding coaches. According to Yahoo's Vincent Goodwill, the Lakers wanted Rambis to be a Lue assistant, which Lue rejected.
The diverse and seemingly contradictory voices within the Lakers only underscore what Zach Lowe of ESPN said about "Get Up!" the day after Johnson abruptly resigned.
"The atmosphere is totally toxic, it's toxic," Lowe said. "Nobody trusts anyone, the communication is totally silent … [The next president] must be someone who intervenes and redefines the culture of how they communicate and make their decisions because everything is broken. "
The LeBron James puzzle
This summer is crucial for James and the Lakers. There is pressure to return to the playoffs after their missed bid last year in the playoffs.
The Lakers have reserved maximum space for the 2019 independent agency class, completing their roster with players who have signed one-year contracts and who, frankly, played a role in their playoff race. .
Read more: The class of free agents NBA 2019 is superimposed and has the potential to modify the league. Here are the best players available.
But it might be better for the Lakers to abandon their goal of coming back to the playoffs so quickly.
Stephen A. Smith of ESPN reported on Wednesday that there were members of the Lakers organization who told Buss to exchange James.
It sounds ridiculous on the surface. They landed James, the greatest free player of 2018 and the best player in the NBA barely a year ago. He is the starting point to return to the playoffs and regain his credibility.
There might be some logic to that, though. Their pursuit of Lue was clearly because he had won a championship with James. The continuing search for a veteran head coach and the pressure of landing a second star must help James.
But the Lakers were not able to win immediately in the championship when they landed James in 2018. They had an inexperienced front-office at Johnson and Pelinka, as well as young players like Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma who, although talented, were not ready to make the jump in the second and third best places of players of a team in contention.
With the growing perception that today 's star players are less interested in playing with James, the Lakers might be better tuned to James by pressing the reset button and trying to build from scratch.
Read more: Kevin Durant says fewer star players want to play with LeBron James because of his style and the "toxic" environment that follows him
We do not know what an exchange for James would look like because there are no players like him in the NBA. He is still an elite talent, but he is at the end of his career. He does not have a no-trade clause as he did in Cleveland, but the teams would be wary of trading it for him if he was convinced he did not want to be there. James' presence can completely reshape a franchise.
It would be difficult to make an exchange, but the current Lakers dilemma was caused in part by trying to pass from a young lottery team to a competitor in just a few months after the signing of the James with them. The resulting pressure to try to speed up this schedule has created some of their recurring problems.
Fans want change, and it could happen
The Lakers' problems are already serious enough for fans to hold a protest outside Staples Center on Friday.
A change could be soon, one way or the other.
The Lakers are still questioning coaches and candidates such as Kidd or former coach of Indiana Pacers, Frank Vogel, could be suitable replacements.
Nobody really knows how the free will of the Lakers will work. They are not considered to be among the top players, but the team's prospects could change dramatically if players like Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler or Kemba Walker decided to play with James in LA.
However, if things continue to go wrong, we do not know how long Mr. Pelinka could stay at his post. The position of president being still vacant, the Lakers could decide to hire a respected executive who could reorganize the entire team. This could even include James trading. The radiation in an independent agency could only accelerate the wholesale change.
Whatever happens, what happens in June and July could dramatically change the perception of the team, for better or for worse.
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