New Lakers head coach Byron Scott at the Lakers training facility in El Segundo on Tuesday, September 9, 2014. Scott Varley — Staff photographer
The common thread that tie Byron Scott, Brian Shaw and Derek Fisher go deeper than winning multiple NBA championships with the Lakers. They are all NBA head coaches, hoping their professional experience in collecting championship hardware will carry over on the sideline.
All of have experienced rough patches, though.
Fisher has compiled a 4-10 record thus far in his first season coaching the New York Knicks. Shaw went 36-46 last season in his first year with the Denver Nuggets and missed the playoffs. Scott experienced some good, including two trips to the NBA Finals with the former New Jersey Nets and winning NBA coach of the year in 2008 with the former New Orleans Hornets. Scott has also experienced some bad. All three of his coaching stints in New Jersey (200-04), New Orleans (2004-09) and Cleveland (2010-13) ended with his firing. Scott has also overseen the Lakers’ worst start in franchise history.
“Both of those guys are great guys and I love them to death,” Scott said before the Lakers hosted the Nuggets on Sunday at Staples Center. “Being ex-players, they’ll learn a lot faster than most guys because they’ve been there and done that. It’s obviously an adjustment because you’re so used to doing it when you played. When you coach, you have to rely on other people to do it. I think both of those guys will be great coaches.”
How tempted has the Scott felt tempted to suit up for the current Lakers despite his 14-year- NBA career ending about 19 years ago?
“‘I would love to take one of your jerseys and be able to play,'” Scott recalled telling his players. “We all wish we could still play as coaches when we played in this game. But you have to rely on them and trust them to go out there and execute the game plan.”
Shaw said he has “learned a lot,” after completing last season that entailed veteran guard Andre Miller verbally confronting him after his absence in a recent game snapped his league-leading consecutive games played streak (239). But Shaw tries to past playing experience to expedite the learning curve.
“You can ask how many guys have won it or how many guys have felt that feeling before. There’s not too many guys in that locker room who can say that,” said Shaw, who won three of his NBA titles from 2000-2002 and served as an assistant coach when he won two more championships in 2009 and 2010. “You just ask them to try to do things the way I’m asking you to do it. You’ve been there before and done that. At some point they trust it and try to do it.”
Scott said he and Shaw “never talked about” when they interviewed for similar coaching vacancies, including the Cleveland Cavaliers (2010) and the Clippers (2013) because of the respect they have for each other.
“It’s competitive. You wan to bring your best,” Shaw said. “I also want my opponent to do their best and see how it all plays out.”
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