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Luke Walton is in the hot seat. It was true the moment James Lebron joins the Los Angeles Lakers. Its coaches have an extremely short life. Paul Silas, who led the Cleveland Cavaliers during James' rookie season, did not last two years. Mike Brown He took him to the NBA Finals and won 60 games in consecutive seasons, but was fired as an ultimate recruiting effort to keep him in his home town. David Blatt was ousted after a season that came up with two championship wins. James is a transcendent talent, but an impatient one. Most often, this leads to changes in the direction of your team when things do not work.
What's sad is that patience is a proven virtue in James coaches. The Miami Heat could easily have panicked and dismissed Erik Spoelstra after his 9-8 start of the 2010-11 season. Nobody would have blinked Pat Riley recover his old work. James even seemed to want to do it, as Riley acknowledged in Ian Thomsen's book The soul of basketball that his free agent acquisition superstar asked him if he "Never have the itch to "train again during Spoelstra's initial struggles." Riley said no, Spoelstra is now arguably the best basketball coach.
But Pat Riley has the patience and strength of conviction built over the decades of major NBA franchises. He did that when Magic Johnson was a player on his own teams. Johnson and Rob Pelinka have been running the Lakers for less than two years and new diets tend to be nervous when issues are so important. With James on board, a decisive summer of free agency and young players whose developments are at stake, the stakes may have never been as important for a nascent NBA superteam as for the Lakers right now .
They are not going to make a decision based on the next decade. They are not trying to develop a coach that will suit them one day. They have a window to win now, while James is still the best player in the NBA. This window will not stay open forever. If the Lakers leave Walton, it will be to try to restart a championship race rather than passively waiting for it to form in an organic way.
This will be reflected in the coach that they choose. Most of their best choices will be experienced. Those who do not come from very specific backgrounds who have proven themselves in the production of high level coaches. The Lakers are not going to have a third chance at this. If they send Walton back, their next coach will likely be the last of James' career. They must succeed the first time. Here are the best potential candidates, starting with those who need to be scratched immediately.
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