It has been around three weeks since Los Angeles Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson stepped down and the organization parted ways with head coach Luke Walton and to this point, neither candidate has been replaced.
As far as the front office vacancy goes, it is not looking like the Lakers are planning to replace Johnson, instead just elevating general manager Rob Pelinka to be the clear man in charge of basketball decisions.
Pelinka and owner Jeanie Buss have begun the process of finding Walton’s replacement, interviewing former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue, Philadelphia 76ers assistant coach Monty Williams, Miami Heat assistant coach Juwan Howard and former Milwaukee Bucks head coach Jason Kidd so far.
Williams seems to be a hot commodity among the league’s head coaching vacancies as it came out on the Phoenix Suns are ‘gaining real momentum’ towards hiring him.
The Lakers may not be out of the running as according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Suns have not made an offer to Williams yet and the Lakers are still in discussions with Williams to go along with Lue:
Sources: Phoenix owner Robert Sarver met with Sixers assistant Monty Williams in Philadelphia on Wednesday night. Williams remains Suns top target to hire as head coach, but no offer has been yet extended. Williams remains in talks for Lakers job, vying with Ty Lue.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 2, 2019
Considering Lue’s relationship with LeBron James, he is considered the favorite around the league to be the team’s next head coach. He has interviewed with the Lakers twice already and was said to be impressive in the eyes of the team’s brass.
It will be interesting to see if the Lakers decide to interview any other candidates other than Williams, Lue, Howard, and Kidd or if they were impressed enough to offer one of those four the job. However, nneither of those things has happened to this point.
