NBA Rumors Round-Up
NBA Rumors: Lakers Looking at Brown, Skiles?
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
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The Lakers, sources add, have also internally discussed reaching out to Scott Skiles and former NBA championship-winning coach Larry Brown, who has spent the past two seasons in the collegiate game at SMU.
Skiles and Brown join Alvin Gentry, Kurt Rambis, Byron Scott, Lionel Hollins and Mike Dunleavy as potential candidates for the Lakers head coaching position, which is looking like it won’t be filled until close to draft night, if not afterwards.
After nearly two seasons of D’Antoni ball, the Lakers are clearly interviewing a lot of defensive-oriented candidates, which is why Skiles has been thrown into the mix.
Brown is the really interesting name to take note of. Although he’s only had one season over .500 in the last four seasons, he’s the only candidate to have won a championship, back in 2004 with the Detroit Pistons against the Lakers coincidentally. He’s a win-now hire who has the credentials to immediately earn Kobe Bryant’s respect – an important factor. However, the two’s stubbornness makes the probability of a potential clash somewhat high.
The buyout language in Brown’s contract with SMU, which pays him around $2 million annually, is unknown. He has a reputation for hopping around, but he has his best team coming in next season, highlighted by his first top five recruit in point guard Emmanuel Mudiay. The Lakers may be the only pro team capable of luring him away, if the interest is serious and mutual.
As the Los Angeles Lakers remain cool on the pursuit of Derek Fisher as a coaching candidate, the New York Knicks continue to cement themselves as the strong frontrunner to hire him, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
So far, the Lakers have expressed an exclusive desire to explore experienced head coaches in their search, and there isn’t yet an indication that team officials plan to seriously consider Fisher for the job, league sources said.
The appeal of Fisher for the Knicks is easy to see. He checks all of the same boxes that Steve Kerr, who at one point verbally committed to take the job, did. He has extensive knowledge and understanding of the triangle offense, has a long history with Phil Jackson and has strong leadership traits that should translate well over to being a head coach.
The big difference is that Fisher, with the Lakers’ interest waning, doesn’t have multiple teams pursuing him in order to create a bidding war like Kerr did. He may cost more than the $13.2 million they were trying to get Kerr to accept on a three-year deal, but will still likely come significantly cheaper than the offer the Golden State Warriors were able to lure Kerr away with. It will likely come down to whether Fisher actually wants to become a coach, not financial figures. Just considering Fisher has already cost the Knicks, Jackson in particular actually, $25,000 for publicly commenting about him while he’s on another team, or tampering as the league called it.
Once again, Rondo said he would like to finish his career in Boston. He also said he will spend a majority of the summer in Boston for the first time.
“I don’t like change, really,” he said. “I’m pretty comfortable. I have a beautiful home here. I love it. I have great neighbors.
“I don’t want to leave, but it’s part of the process that I’ll talk about once the season is over. As of now, I’m a Celtic.”
Rondo made these comments after talking about how bad he wanted to get back to competing at a high level. He has faith in Celtics’ management, stemming from the fact that he has won an NBA championship with the franchise before and been to the Finals twice already in his career. That gives the Celtics’ an advantage with his pending free agency that the Minnesota Timberwolves just don’t have with Kevin Love, who is reportedly seeking a trade and spent several days in Boston to “checkout the city”.
Rondo is set to become a free agent at the end of the season. The Celtics have already tried to sign him to an extension, but it just didn’t make financial sense for him at the time to do so. By becoming a free agent he can receive a max, five-year contract. However, he could sign a three-year extension after July 1 if he desires, making the likely assumption that the Celtics oblige and make an offer.
He’s been surrounded by rumors for over a year now, but it seems like the Celtics will only consider trading him if their plans to put a contender around him don’t come to fruition and it’s their only means to significantly improve.
