If you had to pick a successor to Lakers coach Phil Jackson would it be the team’s current assistant coach, Brian Shaw or former Nets and Hornets head coach, Byron Scott?

That question just got closer to being relevant with the news on Tuesday morning about Shaw’s interest in the open coaching position with the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

Is Phil done? His daughter and Luke Walton think so

Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times reported that Shaw’s representation sent out a text that said his client is “close to accepting a deal” to be head coach in Cleveland.

LeBron or no LeBron it’s a head coaching position, one of only 30 of its kind. It is available now, not dependent on someone else moving over to accommodate a successor. What’s that saying, “If you snooze you lose”?

Shaw, an assistant to Phil Jackson for five seasons isn’t just a clipboard holder. Like all Jackson assistants he was given responsibility for scouting a third of the league’s teams and game-planning when the Lakers were to face them.

He’s played in the triangle for Jackson, been a teammate of Kobe and Fish and now is a trusted adviser on the coaching staff.

Then there’s Byron Scott, perennially mentioned as a good candidate to slide into the coaching chair at Staples Center. Byron’s resume includes playing time as a member of the Showtime Lakers, during which he won three championship rings.

He returned to the team for his last year on the court which just happened to be during Kobe Bryant’s rookie year of 1996-97. The connection to Kobe is considered significant since it seems ridiculous to believe that Bryant wouldn’t be afforded the opportunity to weigh in on management’s ultimate choice.

As a head coach, Scott took the N.J. Nets to the finals twice in the last decade and weathered the chaos of coaching the New Orleans Hornets during the years they had no permanent home in the post-Katrina days.

He coached them all the way from an 18 win team to the second seed in the Western Division playoffs in 2008. For his efforts he won coach of the year.

But he never achieved the same success in the next season and rumblings turned into words that indicated Scott was out of favor with the team’s star point guard Chris Paul.It resulted in Scott’s firing early in the 2009 season.

Shaw has never been a head coach but his connection to all the current players is clearly superior to that of Scott and his preparation by Jackson has to count for something.

So there you have it ladies and gentleman. Not a bad pick between the two but the choice might come down to familiarity and trust rather than coaching resume. Polls are open at the bottom of this page here.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

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