Lakers Coach Byron Scott Makes Drastic Change Benching D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle
It has been another challenging year for the Los Angeles Lakers with the storied NBA franchise recording only three wins thus far in the 21 games played in the 2015-16 NBA season. Head coach Byron Scott has become increasingly frustrated with his young team and has finally decided to make a significant change.
As a result of another poor start to the season, Coach Scott has decided to make some drastic changes to the starting lineup. Although the primary goal of this rebuilding year was to develop the team’s promising young players, Scott has left a lot of fans second-guessing his decision-making capabilities after his latest move.
According to Lakers reporter Mike Trudell, Scott has demoted rookie point guard D’Angelo Russell and second-year forward Julius Randle to the bench:
Lou Williams and Larry Nance Jr. join the opening lineup, while lottery picks D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle will come off the bench, the head coach announced before Monday’s game against Toronto.
Unfortunately, the move to take arguably two of the team’s most promising young players out of the starting lineup didn’t result in instant success. The Lakers fell to the Toronto Raptors on the road that was the team’s 18th loss on the season.
Although the team proved unsuccessful right out of the gate with the new starting lineup, Coach Scott will continue to with Larry Nance Jr. and Lou Williams as starters moving forward. The rookie forward and veteran guard are expected to be starters for the next five to 10 games as the coaching staff assesses whether there’s been an improvement.
The Lakers will continue their road trip on Wednesday night with the team facing off against Andrew Wiggins’ Minnesota Timberwolves at the Target Center. The Timberwolves are currently favored against the Lakers in this matchup with a -6.5 point spread, according to Sportsbook.ag.
Minnesota got the best of the Lakers back in Los Angeles in the season opener for both teams. Karl-Anthony Towns and company will likely do the same on their floor on Wednesday night, but it may be a closer game that the spread dictates.
