Los Angeles Lakers: Who Should Be The Next Coach?

Apr 12, 2013; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach Joe Prunty (left) and head coach Byon Scott stand on the court during a timeout in the fourth quarter against the New York Knicks at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

As we are approaching closer to the 2014 NBA Draft and NBA Free Agency, it is surprising to everyone that the Los Angeles Lakers may enter both off-season events without a head coach. Many people, including NBA on TNT analyst Charles Barkley believe that coaching the Los Angeles Lakers is indeed a “bad job”. According to Dan Hixman of the Reno-Gazette Journal, when asked if he would coach the Lakers, Barkley replied with the following statement:

"“You don’t take bad jobs. You’ve got — your best player is 40 coming off a bad Achilles and knee surgery. That’s not a good job right now. So, no, I just don’t think you take a bad job.”"

The biggest reason why the Lakers are struggling to find a new head coach is because there isn’t many qualified coaches left available. This isn’t just a regular NBA team in search of a head coach, it’s the Los Angeles Lakers. The pressure will be on early and often and some coaches shy away from that kind of pressure. Brian Kamenetzky of the Land O’Lakers recently examined L.A.’s unwillingness to seriously consider first-time coaching candidates:

"“In the end, their patience might pay off. In absolute terms, the Lakers don’t lose much by waiting to see what happens in the early days of free agency. And while this sort of attitude reinforces their lack of a strong philosophical vision for their next coach, losing one of their preferred candidates to another team simply means moving down the list another spot. There aren’t enough vacancies around the league to lose them all.”More from Los Angeles LakersDoes Christian Wood make the Los Angeles Lakers a legit contender?NBA Trade Rumors: Lakers plotting pipe dream move for Trae Young?Los Angeles Lakers: Best and worst moves from 2023 NBA offseasonLos Angeles Lakers: How a post-LeBron James era could look likeNBA Rumors: Damian Lillard trade could open door for Christian Wood to join Heat"

As of right now, the front runner for the job is former Laker himself Byron Scott. He reportedly had his second interview with the Lakers June 10th. Scott has seemed very interested in the Lakers head coaching vacancy, so why isn’t he hired yet? Recently with the hires of Mike Brown and Mike D’Antoni, the Lakers are now more cautious about who they hire since they will be thinking long term as they prepare for life after Kobe.

Other candidates for the head coaching vacancy for the Lakers include; Lionel Hollins, Kurt Rambis and Mike Dunleavy. The most intriguing thing about all of these coaches is that they are defensive-minded, and run post-driven basketball philosophy, which is what Kobe prefers.

Whoever is chosen to coach the Lakers, which many think it will ultimately be Byron Scott, will be in charge of directing the 16-time NBA Championship Los Angeles Lakers into a new direction–winning.

With plenty of cap room, great atmosphere, and a winning atmosphere in Los Angeles, it shouldn’t be hard to find a new coach or bring in new players to help rebuild this franchise into a winning one once again.

First things first, the Lakers need a new coach.