Report: Lakers to meet with Lionel Hollins Thursday

Following an interview with former Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Kurt Rambins, the Los Angles Lakers are set to meet with former Memphis Grizzlies head coach Lionel Hollins per the Los Angeles Times:

"The Lakers have now interviewed Rambis, Byron Scott and Mike Dunleavy, and plan to meet with Alvin Gentry on Wednesday and Lionel Hollins on Thursday."

Lionel Hollins is highly regarded around the NBA by several front offices. On and off as the interim head coach for the Grizzlies during the 1999-2000 season and the 2004-05 season, the Grizzlies would soon award Hollins for his work, making him the full-time coach in 2009. From then he’d lead the Grizzlies to the best years in franchise history, winning a franchise-high 56 games in 2012-13 all while leading the group lead by Mike Conley, Marc Gasol, and Zach Randolph to the Western Conference finals for the first time ever.

But the relationship between Lionel Hollins and the new front office regiment would sour throughout the season as the two clashed in terms of philosophy, player development, and the Rudy Gay trade, leading to Dave Joerger replacing Hollins as head coach for the 2012-13 season.

Since then, Hollins has been linked to several teams during NBA head coach free agency, some of those teams being the Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors, and Detroit Pistons.

Compared to the other candidates the Lakers have met with, there’s an argument that can be made about Hollins being the best coach of the bunch. He preaches defense and is a hard-nosed, old school coach that Lakers star Kobe Bryant would surely get along with. All-in-all, it comes down to who Mitch Kupchak and company think is the better fit and if resume has anything to do with it, the likelihood of Hollins being the Lakers coach come 2014-15 is very high.