Former Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins interested in Lakers job

With Mike D’Antoni out in Los Angeles, the biggest head coaching vacancy opened up and according to Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports, a former Memphis Grizzlies head coach is interested in the position.

It’s not hard to question why a free-agent head coach would be interested in the Los Angeles Lakers job and with a lot of pressure to improve and contend as soon as possible, this job may not be as lucrative as some may want it to be. When Phil Jackson couldn’t get anymore out of the Kobe Bryant-Pau Gasol-Andrew Bynum trio they let him walk away and picked up Mike Brown. And when Mike Brown started off 2012-13 season flying under the expectations placed upon the team when they acquired Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, they replaced him with Mike D’Antoni five games into the season. And a little bit of everything damned D’Antoni’s chances of re-joining the club, choosing the resign and find work elsewhere.

Basically, this job has a few expectations to live up to.

Until the front office figures out which direction they want to go in, rushing the process to compete for a championship to appease Kobe Bryant during the last two years of his contract or play it safe by grooming a young team and building slowly, the way we often deem the “right way”. This could affect Hollins’ chances to secure the job. During his time with the Memphis Grizzlies, Hollins proved to be a solid coach by growing them and taking them to the Western Conference Finals during his final season with the team, but he’s extremely flawed, not willing to put faith in younger players, and may not find it easy to get a job due to him resisting the advanced analytics wave that’s taking over the league.

Considering it’s the Lakers, Hollins won’t be the only head coach interested in this job. With the lottery coming up, it’ll be interesting to see how quick the front office works.