The Case for LA Lakers Keeping Mike D’Antoni

The Los Angeles Lakers should retain Mike D'Antoni as coach for next season, no matter how ugly this year has been on the surface.

The primary reasoning is pretty simple.

Would D'Antoni be the ideal coach for a team that competes for championships every single season and gets the pick of the litter in free agency? 

No.

But are the Los Angeles Lakers one of those teams?

Also no.

There's the delusional outlook, and there's the reality. The Lakers were once a perennial contender, but now they are far from it. That alone, in some minds, necessitates someone to take the fall. So who is the scapegoat?

It isn't the star center playing in Houston that Lakers fans only have to see a few times a year. It's not the franchise legend sitting on the sideline in a suit. It isn't one of the game's greatest point guards who has a body that keeps failing him. It isn't the owners who share the same last name of the man who oversaw multiple title teams.

It isn't even the mash unit of players on the floor, outclassed from the tip almost every single night.

Nope. It's the guy on the sidelines who isn't Phil Jackson and who "doesn't coach defense," the guy that never should have been hired in the first place, the guy who is leading the Lakers to their worst season in franchise history.

It's D'Antoni.



And really, that's the life of an NBA coach. There's a reason why when things go bad, the coach goes first. It's the easiest thing to do, and given the short lifespan of most coaches in the league, it's clearly the preferred method as well. 

It's one the Los Angeles Lakers should resist the temptation of taking, though. Looking at this year objectively, the Lakers never had a chance at doing anything substantial.

But with that being said, D'Antoni has made lemonade with some real lemons. Point guard Kendall Marshall ...

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