Los Angeles Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak isn't pumping Lakers fans with a lot of confidence right now.
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Yahoo! Sports reported the Kupchak met with former Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy about the Lakers' head coaching position on Sunday - two days before the NBA Lottery.
It's not so much the fact that Kupchak interviewed Dunleavy, who led the Lakers to the 1991 NBA Finals where they lost to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, but Kupchak previously had been quoted as saying that would be the time the team would begin its search.
Kupchak had said the Lakers wanted to wait until they knew their draft status, obviously hoping a higher draft pick would attract what they thought would be better candidates. But all they ended up doing was losing on a couple of potential early candidates in Steve Kerr, who signed with Golden State, and Kevin Ollie, who re-signed with the UConn Huskies after leading them to the 2014 NCAA championship.
Dunleavy, who was 36 when the Lakers first hired him, spent two seasons with the Lakers. His second season in Los Angeles was marred by Magic Johnson's first retirement from the league after revealing that he had contacted the HIV virus. Dunleavy then ruffled some feathers in L.A. for bolting on the Lakers after the season to coach the Milwaukee Bucks.
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In four seasons in Milwaukee, Dunleavy never won more than 34 games. He later coached the Portland Trail Blazers, winning NBA Coach of the Year honors in 1999, and the Clippers, where he led the once-moribund franchise to a 47-win season in 2005-06 and leading them to the Western Conference semifinals.
But why would Kupchak say publicly that the Lakers weren't interviewing anyone until after the draft lottery and then met with Dunleavy two days before the draft lottery? Were they afraid of the Kerr syndrome, in which Kerr was not a coaching candidate until Phil Jackson hinted he was interested in Kerr when he because the Knicks' team president?
Aren't they the Lakers, the franchise that everyone wants to coach? They haven't been since Jackson retired as their coach in 2011. Their bungling of two coaching hires has put management on the spot this offseason.
And the more misinformation they give, the more incompetent they look.
Do you have faith that the Lakers will hire a coach that will return them to NBA title contenders? Comment below or tell us @SportsWN.
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