Getty Rajon Rondo of the Los Angeles Lakers drives to the basket against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Los Angeles Clippers.
After a notoriously dysfunctional 2018-2019 season, the Los Angeles Lakers head into the offseason looking for a new head coach and help for LeBron James. They decided to part ways with former coach Luke Walton following the season and head of basketball operations Magic Johnson subsequently resigned from his position. Scrambling to find a coach after being spurned by both Monty Williams and Tyronn Lue, the Lakers are in full-blown panic mode with the draft in the not so distant future.
Before the Sixers and Raptors playoff game, Rajon Rondo joined ESPN’s NBA Countdown to give some analysis. When the crew got to talking about the notorious Lakers Protest, host Michelle Beadle asked Rondo for his thoughts on the matter as a player on the team.
Laker Players Didn’t Notice Dysfunction During Season, Rajon Rondo Says
When asked about how dysfunctional things seemed from the perspective of a player on the Lakers, Rondo actually said that things weren’t as bad as they might have seemed.
“Towards the end of the season maybe but obviously no one expected to happen what happened with Magic the last game of the season. The timing, we thought, was off but, like I said, no one had a clue.” Rondo would say on ESPN’s NBA Countdown. “It wasn’t as bad, we still were trying to fight, obviously within a month out we were out of the playoffs. We still had pride, we still played with heart, things just didn’t work out this season”
Rondo, as a consummate professional and longtime NBA veteran, should have his word taken with a grain of salt here but sheds a bit of interesting light into the Lakers’ situation. As a free agent with possible coaching aspirations down the road, Rondo smartly wouldn’t really open up and trash the Lakers. However, he did seem to be fairly genuine when expressing that things did get a little dysfunctional at the end but on the whole weren’t as bad as they were made out to be.
Lakers Offseason Dysfunction Continues in Coaching Search
With the NBA Draft Lottery less than a week away and the draft itself a little over a month away, the Lakers are scrambling to find themselves a new coach. Initially thought to be a shoo-in to land Ty Lue, the Lakers and Lue were unable to come to terms on an offer that made sense for both sides. According to most reports, the Lakers were unwilling to give Lue a five year deal in a comparable range with other championship-winning coaches.
Source: The Buss family & Rob Pelinka signed off on hiring Ty Lue last week. Kurt & Linda Rambis were the only parties opposed, and convinced the Lakers to hold off, which lead to today.
While chasing Lue, the Lakers lost out on their other top candidate, Monty Williams. Williams instead took a job with the Suns and have forced the Lakers to open back up their coaching search. Jason Kidd is still a name being thrown around frequently and the Lakers met with Frank Vogel today regarding the job as well.