Luke Walton is a dead man walking. He’s essentially been fired weeks ago. With the Lakers in need of a head coach, they may have their eyes set on Doc Rivers. Unfortunately, Doc wants nothing to do with the Lakers. He’s perfectly happy coaching the Clippers.
Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN had the following:
“Just so we won’t talk about this for a while, let me end this right now: [Lakers president] Magic Johnson and I are very close friends, as you know, and that’s what we are,” Rivers said. “(But) early in this year, we (Ballmer and I) both decided let’s end this thing. Take this [option] out and extend and make it a longer deal. We’ve long decided on that. We just have chosen not to say anything about it. I’m here. My job is not done here.
“I came here for a lot of reasons, and one of them was obviously to win a world championship and the other one was to make this a place that people respect and want to come here. I think we are accomplishing that part, but not the first part yet. That’s my goal and that’s it. We don’t need to go on this anymore, thank you, please. I’m going to be here and I am looking forward to the future.”
Duh. No shit. Let’s see here. Option A: Stay with the Clippers. A team that has perfect role players already in place, virtually locked into a playoff spot, and 2 max free agent slots available. Plus it looks like Kawhi is definitely getting one of them. Hmmmm
Okay, Option B: Go to the Lakers. A team that is an 11 seed at the moment. A roster with an aging LeBron, Brandon Ingram who got hit with blood clots, an always injured Lonzo Ball, and Kyle Kuzma. Oh, and you get a chance to coach the biggest coach killer in NBA history. If things go south, you get fired.
This isn’t even a discussion. Who the hell would leave the Clippers for this Lakers mess? The Clippers are going to control LA for the foreseeable future. The Lakers? Well, they had Kobe once.
