Byron Scott is no different than Mike D'Antoni and Mike Brown, his two predecessors.
Both inevitably crashed and burned amid substandard results that didn't measure up to the Los Angeles Lakers' disproportionate expectations. They came, were expected to win, didn't win and left. Scott has now entered the same coaching carousel—the one the Lakers have created by design.
This year's team isn't built to win. But, much like the ones before it, onset expectations, at least publicly, didn't match the squad's actual ceiling. Now Scott, like D'Antoni and Brown, finds himself coaching through an early-season facade that has once again bent to reality.
Similar Standards
Brown lasted not two seasons in Los Angeles as Phil Jackson's successor. His first foray into the Lakers' sideline inferno ended with a second-round playoff exit at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012. On the heels of the Lakers acquiring Dwight Howard and Steve Nash in free agency that offseason, he was canned five games into 2012-13, having failed to make sense of the team's superstar medley.
In came D'Antoni, instead of Jackson, to restore respect and, most importantly, a Showtime style of basketball. But, while he guided the Lakers to the playoffs, they flopped in fantastic fashion.
They, a team of four stars in Howard, Nash, Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, battled injuries and identity issues all season before falling to a far superior San Antonio Spurs squad—a first-round sweep that had just as much to do with erring expectations as it did Bryant's absence.
D'Antoni would survive another injury-riddled campaign following Howard's departure in 2013-14, during which Bryant and Nash combined for 21 appearances. The Lakers would win 27 games, the third-lowest full-season total in franchise history, miss the playoffs for the first time since 2005 and D'Antoni...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
