Los Angeles Lakers Must Leave Past Behind to Truly Move Forward

The past is a great place to linger when the present doesn't have much to offer, as is the case now with the Los Angeles Lakers.

But if L.A. wants a real future, it must cut ties with the exceptionalist thinking of the bygone era by which it defines itself.

Byron Scott, the Lakers' new head coach, is just the latest example of Los Angeles' inability to let go.

A quintessential retread, Scott comes to the Lakers with a fairly long but wholly unimpressive history. This is his fourth coaching stop, his first since a three-year stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers ended in 2013 with a grand total of 64 wins. In his career, the 51-year-old Scott is 105 games under .500.

He has made the playoffs in four of his 13 seasons, however, and earned the 2007-08 Coach of the Year award when his Chris Paul-led New Orleans Hornets notched 56 victories. And let's not forget a pair of Finals appearances with the New Jersey Nets.



It's probably wrong to say Scott is a bad coach. He's been both very solid and underwhelming by turn, typically depending on the quality of his personnel. In that sense, he's not so different from most coaches.

The issue, though, is that the NBA has already seen a 937-game sample of what Scott has to offer on the bench, and it decided collectively that it wasn't worth buying.

Except for the Lakers, apparently, who were happy to hire a self-admitted old-school thinker with ties to the team's past.

Per Sam Amick of USA Today, Scott said: "I do think that (Jim and Jeannie Buss) know how wearing that purple and gold, being a member of their family, that Laker family, is an important issue and I think they'll look at that and consider that as well."

Scott's history with the organization (he played 11 of his 14 professional seasons in L.A.) and his close relationship with Kobe Bryant are the main reasons he got the gig. All parties involved hav...

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