Tyronn Lue was favored to coach the Lakers next season before they even dumped Luke Walton. Once the Suns hired Monty Williams, the Lakers clearly turned their attention toward Lue. The Lakers and Lue opened contract negotiations. Lue even began assembling his coaching staff.
But…
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN:
Negotiations between the Los Angeles Lakers and Ty Lue have reached an impasse without a deal to make him the franchise’s next head coach, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 8, 2019
Discussions have included talks on contract and assistant coaching staff, sources said. Among Lakers hopes on a Lue staff: Jason Kidd. He made a strong impression with management in his head coaching interview and had a productive history w/ Bucks developing young talent. https://t.co/uQxTjqWAm7
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 8, 2019
Hiring the runner-up in a coaching search as the lead assistant? That’s just asking for the head coach to get fired and replaced by that assistant. Lue knows.
There are many signs Jason Kidd is a bad coach. He also favors a slow tempo while Lue likes to play fast. This would be a rough match.
Assigning credit or blame for a player’s improvement (or lack thereof) is incredibly difficult, especially from the outside. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton developed into stars under Kidd’s watch, but they were already promising young players when Kidd arrived in Milwaukee. Jabari Parker floundered under Kidd, though injuries obviously affected the forward. Michael Carter-Williams – seemingly Kidd’s handpicked point guard – had his career completely untracked while being coached by Kidd.
Maybe Kidd would be better as an assistant coach. He was an incredibly smart player, and a lesser role could allow him to grow into coaching. But there’s a lot of rough edges to work through.
Kidd is not a good enough coach to force on Lue – not with management’s fondness for Kidd and Kidd’s campaigning to be head coach. The setup would be terrible for trust and chemistry, especially if Lue isn’t on board.
I still think the Lakers will hire Lue. They’ve gone too far down this road to simply turn back now. But this is a messy situation.
