Byron Scott thinks he'd still be Laker coach had Jim Buss done 'a great job'

Byron Scott is a different type of cat. The former Nets, New Orleans, Cavaliers and Lakers coach does not have the shiniest track record in spite of making two NBA Finals as lead coach and winning the NBA’s Coach of the Year award in 2008, and he turned his legacy into a complete hash of things during that disastrous two year run with Los Angeles between 2014-16.

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Charged with making life prettier for the team’s local television viewers during the final two seasons of Kobe Bryant’s career while developing some semblance of a youth movement on the side, Scott failed miserably with both tasks. The Lakers went 38-126 on his watch, with Bryant forever dominating the ball, all while Scott needlessly limited the minutes of his prospects while tossing out frequent, unconscionable rip jobs regarding his young players to the media.

Scott was let go by the team during the offseason, allowing for fellow former Laker champion Luke Walton to take over as lead coach. In spite of the team’s dim 2016-17 outlook, Los Angeles seems an altogether cheerier place with Walton having replaced Scott.

Not content with this, though, is Byron. Which is why he brought a flippant remark to the table when asked about the work done so far by Lakers basketball president and co-owner Jim Buss on Outside the Lines:

Leave it to Byron Scott to somehow be wrong about both sides of a dumb sports issue. He’s like weekday, daytime sports talk TV in human form.

If Jim Buss had done a great job with the Lakers, he wouldn’t have hired Byron Scott in the first place. Not only had Scott whiffed terribly in his attempts to lead a rebuilding effort in Cleveland (turning in some of the worst defensive teams of the modern era) in the seasons prior to his move back to Los Angeles, but he is clearly only suited to coach desperate veterans.

Hiring him to run the show for a young team is a laughable enterprise. Yes, Chris Paul and David West were relatively youthful upon making their way under Scott in NOLA, but that would have happened regardless of the coach. And, if we’re honest, both Paul and West acted like a set of 47-year olds in their mid-teens, so overcoming any brand of precociousness with those two was never an obstacle.

The idea that the Lakers needed a veteran coach (and former teammate) to settle Kobe Bryant was and remains just as laughable; and years later we’ve got the results to point to for proof. Kobe Bryant didn’t stop for anyone, often to a team-distressing degree. Why would he ever bend for Byron Scott?

The other end of this paints Jim Buss – the great job do-er – as being able to sustain Byron Scott’s employment in Los Angeles were Buss able to cobble together a great roster. Which he has not, partially by (rebuilding) design. This would, in Scott’s eyes, lead to better play and Byron Scott, Laker Coach for Life.

This is also a bit daft, because even if Byron Scott were allotted the use of the sort of great players at this point in his coaching career, there is no guarantee that things would have stuck; or that the Lakers would stick with Scott.

He’s just not good at this. Those New Orleans Hornets teams were going to get where they were supposed to under Byron Scott as it was. Those New Jersey Nets teams? Even afforded the benefit of playing in what was potentially the worst NBA conference in league history, the Nets just barely outpaced their Eastern counterparts under Scott.

Yes, there was a massive turnaround in New Jersey during Scott’s second season, but that turnaround’s impetus wasn’t limited to the team dealing Stephon Marbury for Jason Kidd. It also included productive and healthy seasons from Kerry Kittles, Todd MacCulloch, and Kenyon Martin in 2001-02; three elements that weren’t in place the previous year. Rookie contributors Richard Jefferson and Jason Collins also hopped on board, and yet the Nets still needed all it could to make it past a 42-win Pacer team and lacking Celtics squad in the postseason.

“Great” would mean nothing to Byron Scott’s tenure with the team, no matter how you feel about Jim Buss (whom the jury is already out on; in spite of his job title). Byron Scott just isn’t fit for this gig, because there are things that you could get away with 15 years ago that just (clearly, as his record indicates) don’t fly in the modern era.

This is how Byron Scott sees things, though. At least he’s not fretfully staying up nights anymore, re-hashing his regret for not plying Lou Williams and Brandon Bass with more minutes. On record, at least.

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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