11 questions about LeBron James and the Lakers’ likely search for a new coach

LeBron James has a reputation as someone who gets coaches fired, which may or may not be fair. There’s no real evidence that James was directly involved in Paul Silas’ firing by the Cavaliers in James’ second season in the NBA. Mike Brown was hired by Cleveland that summer, and didn’t get let go until five years later, just weeks before James opted to leave the Cavaliers in free agency. It’s hard to blame James for Brown getting fired at that point.

Solid reports have swirled that James clumsily attempted to replace Erik Spoelstra and push Pat Riley to un-retire from coaching in the trying early days in Miami, but that never actually worked if it did happen, since Spo still coaches the Heat. Cleveland had already made a coaching change before James announced his return in 2014, so he could not have been involved in the machinations there.

There’s no question James’ open dislike for David Blatt led to Cleveland sacking him in the middle of the Cavaliers’ championship 2016 season. There’s one notch. But Ty Lue, who had been hired as Blatt’s deputy before LeBron arrived, was promoted and lasted until after James left last summer.

Now, everyone expects the Lakers to can Luke Walton at the end of this nightmare Lakers season, with persistent reports suggesting that he and James aren’t really on the same page. Fair or not, Walton would see his name etched in stone under Blatt as coaches James got fired. What an honor.

But this opens up a whole new world in James lore.

Because James hasn’t actually experienced too much coaching turnover in his career, there’s never really been an opportunity for a coaching hire to be made specifically for James. You’d have to go back to 2005 to find an open coaching search made by a team with James under contract, and no one would argue that James had much (if any) pull in that initial Mike Brown hire in Cleveland.

As such, this is going to a fascinating experience.

1. How forcefully will everyone involved — from Jeannie Buss to Magic Johnson to James himself — insist that James has nothing to do with it, even though we all know that’s Grade-A baloney?

It’d be a breath of fresh air if everyone just acknowledged that James is the real power broker here and that the Lakers will explicitly ask for his views, talk to Rich Paul and/or read some tea leaves with his behavior.

2. How much will James be involved? Will this be a matter of explicitly asking his views? Or, reading the tea leaves? Will Buss’ reported discontent with Team LeBron’s handling of L’Affair Anthony Davis matter? It’s worth noting that late-era Kobe Bryant did not apparently have pull in coaching decisions, but that was under the bizarre Jim Buss regime. Also, James in 2019 is way, way more important than Kobe circa 2013.

3. Given the weird timing of what comes next, what’s the priority here? The coaching decision will come before the draft (when a potential trade for Davis or another star would likely happen) and free agency. Is the priority a coach more reputed for developing young players, of which the Lakers still have a bunch, and are in line to get another in the draft? Or, will they prefer a personality manager who can balance James with a hoped-for second superstar on the presumptive way via trade (A.D.) or free agency?

Of course, coaches aren’t categorized so cleanly. But you can prioritize certain traits. There are both Doc Riverses (not available) and David Fizdales (not available, we assume) out there.

4. Oh wow, Mark Jackson is definitely getting a look, isn’t he? Yeah.

5. How much of a draw, if any, is the opportunity to coach an aging James and potentially another superstar in Los Angeles with super-high expectations? Could the Lakers convince a good coach in a good situation to risk it all for a chance at coaching James? Doc has said no, and you can come up with a reasonable list of other current NBA head coaches with security who would decline the opportunity given the Lakers’ oddly positioned front office and roster. There are probably 20 current head coaches who say no. But that still leaves a few who’d say yes.

This is to say nothing of the coaches who are in broadcast or elsewhere right now. Does Jeff Van Gundy more openly consider coming back to the sidelines for this? Probably not, given his stress on front office power and how poorly this Magic/Rob Pelinka thing has gone. What about Stan Van Gundy? He’s probably a bad fit all the way around. We’ve regrettably mentioned Jackson. Is DOUG COLLINS walking through that door?

6. Is James going to push a James crony on the front office? Does anyone know if Mike Miller, James Jones, or Richard Jefferson have coaching aspirations? (How does R-Jeff, noted friend of Walton and James, feel about all this?)

7. Is Magic going to push a Magic crony to the front of the line? Is that Derek Fisher’s music?!

8. Is Buss going to insist on keeping it in the Laker family and push Brian Shaw, Byron Scott, the dreaded Fisher, current Lakers assistant Mark Madsen, or TY LUE as contenders?

9. How will Kobe Bryant insert himself in this conversation? Further, in the extremely unlikely event Kobe himself becomes the head coach, will the Lakers have Wizenard alternate jerseys?

10. Given all of the above, is it worth keeping Walton and figuring it out? (In almost all cases where the question is whether it’s worth keeping the incumbent around when said coach has had a relatively short leash, the answer is yes.)

11. Is this going to be as entertaining as we think it will be? Because I have really, really high hopes for this whole Lakers summer. It’ll be difficult to live up to Lakers’ season, but I have high, high hopes.