The Los Angeles Lakers announced the hiring of former Laker, four-time champion and former head and assistant coach, Kurt Rambis, and it was all thanks to Mike D’Antoni. Despite being vocal about his shock for D’Antoni’s hire last season, Rambis has the faith of the Lakers head coach. The new assistant coach has always been a great fan of Phil Jackson and was “shocked” when D’Antoni asked him to join the Lakers staff. Kurt has been an analyst for both Time Warner Cable and ESPN this past year, but really shines in the coaching spotlight. Kurt Rambis joins Dan D’Antoni, Johnny Davis, and recently hired Mark Madsen and Larry Lewis for next season.
Mike D’Antoni is excited about the opportunity to finally have a full training camp with the Lakers, and Mitch Kupchak expects Nash and Gasol attend the camp. Able to play and workout, the two Lakers stars are expected to take the time during training camp to work on team chemistry with their teammates. D’Antoni used last season’s quick turn around from Mike Brown to his hire as one of the reasons the organization failed. But this year, he won’t have that excuse:
“Last year, I came in with certain ideas and didn’t get a chance to see if it’s realistic or not. Also, Steve Nash was hurt for the first seven weeks. So we kept waiting for him to come back to see if it’s all going to work. We had to adjust some things to maximize what we had.”
Kobe’s status will of course be up in the air. The priority is to get him healthy. Training camp allows the Lakers coaching staff to figure out player tendencies and put them in the best positions to succeed, especially when it comes to the bench. Nash will be heavily relied upon to make up for the missing Bryant. Gasol will also be asked to step up as starting center seeing as Dwight Howard left for Houston. The Lakers seem to have significantly improved their depth this season and if they can assimilate the new players with the returning veterans with the help of an entire training camp, they can hopefully get off to a better start.
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