A precedent has been established within the Lakers organization, but then again the expectations were higher the last time they fired a coach over a miserable start.
The discussions of Los Angeles coach Byron Scott's job security has begun in the midst of the Lakers' 0-4 start to the 2015-16 season. Lakersnation.com posed the question whether the franchise is mortgaging its future by its loyalty to Scott and Kobe Bryant.
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Is it time to fire Byron Scott?
"The optimism typified by that 'Welcome Home, Byron' bus stop sign is getting sucked out of Lakerland and the options we have amount to 'fire a local hero and hope the fourth coach since the 2011 season can right the ship toward the tepid mediocrity enjoyed by Denver and Phoenix fans' or 'tank and pray we keep our pick,'" lakersnation.com reported.
Despite striking out on free agents for the third consecutive season, Lakers management thought they had improved the team by signing veteran free agents Lou Williams, Roy Hibbert and Brandon Bass to go along with 2014-15 sensation Jordan Clarkson, No. 2 overall draft pick D'Angelo Russell and returning injured starters Kobe Bryant and Julius Randle.
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Part of the reason the Lakers said they chose Russell over Jahlil Okafor in the 2015 NBA draft was to keep up with the trend Golden State created last year that the NBA was becoming a guard-dominated and 3-point-shooting league.
But Scott is on record as saying he is not a believer in the 3-pointer as a driving factor toward a championship. He came to Los Angeles with a reputation as a defensive-minded coach, but the Lakers are giving up 116.8 points per game through the first four games.
Scott already had to address a fight that took place on the Lakers bench during the team's loss to the Nuggets that resulted in their fourth loss.
"It was late in the fourth quarter, where we were losing the game and guys weren't happy," Scott said after practice Wednesday at the team's facility, according to ESPN. "A few guys kind of discussed it in a very angry way. If they would have just sat on the bench with a smile on their face, I would've been much more concerned.
"I loved it. It tells me guys care."
The Lakers started 0-5 last season, their worst start since they went 0-7 to start the 1957 season as the Minneapolis Lakers. Scott, in his first season with L.A. last year, did not get fired. But Mike Brown did in 2012 when the Lakers started 1-4 with a team that had Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol and -- for a game and a half at least -- Steve Nash.
That team had pressure to win a championship.
Lakers vice president Jim Buss certainly is feeling more pressure after publicly declaring last season that he would step down after three years if the team hadn't reached the Western Conference Finals. The lack of any momentum to start could prompt Buss to make a change. Of course, the last time he did in the middle of the season, he bypassed Phil Jackson to sign Mike D'Antoni.
Either way, the Lakers' immediate future looks muddled.
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