Monty Williams, who was considered one of the top candidates for the Lakers job, agreed to a deal to become the head coach of the Phoenix Suns on Friday. It would stand to reason that coaching in L.A. would be more appealing to him, so that seemed like a fair indicator that the Lakers had settled on another candidate. That candidate is apparently Lue. A report last week made it seem as though Lue impressed the Lakers during the interview process, and he has a history with LeBron James. Lue was the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers when they won their NBA title in 2016.<doc-sep>In making this monumental choice, the Lakers had no choice. There were several candidates but zero options. The announcement has not yet been made, but the matter was decided nearly a year ago. In a perfect world, Tyronn Lue is not the next Lakers coach. But the Lakers don’t live in a perfect world, they live in a LeBron James world, and so any moment now the inevitable reunion should be complete. Lue is expected to be named as the new Lakers bench boss, rejoining the player he coached to an NBA championship in Cleveland. If hearing this makes you cringe, surely you saw it coming. While Lue might not be the Lakers’ best answer, right now he is the only answer. From the moment the Lakers signed LeBron last summer, they agreed to be ruled by his philosophies, his strategies, his wants, his needs. At this point, don’t they pretty much have to let him pick the coach? Advertisement Like it or not, the only way the Lakers can immediately survive this nightmare of a LeBron occupation is to lean into it. LeBron could be around for at least a couple more seasons, so they have to gulp, placate, and hope for the best. With Lue, the Lakers are not only giving LeBron a coach, they’re throwing him a bone. Lue is the LeBron Whisperer. He is the opposite of Luke Walton, and not just because LeBron actually likes him. Lue can stand up to The King, stare down The King, even sit The King, because together, for one brief moment, they were NBA kings. Lue might not be the greatest coach, but he will be a useful coach. For a LeBron team in full crisis in the encroaching twilight of his career, Lue can be the only coach. Sign up for our Lakers newsletter » With Lue, the LeBron Lakers at least will have a chance at thriving the next three years in relative peace. They should survive the internal bumps. They will be better able to handle the LeBron madness. Even when things go bad, the work environment should remain stable, meaning there won’t a certain No. 23 whispering about firing him. With any other coach, one thing goes wrong, and everything goes to hell, because LeBron won’t do a thing to stop it. By hiring Lue, the Lakers are playing defense, but that’s what they need right now. They need to defend their decision to sign James. They need to defend their intentions to build the team around him. They need to defend the rim from the fast break of his daily headlines and simmering controversies. If they had gone on the offense and brought in an outsider without James’ approval, they might as well trade him now, and while that might one day be an option, slow your roll, we’re not there yet. Advertisement Here’s guessing the Lakers will try to sell it that they are hiring Lue partially because of his Lakers ties. That is complete balderdash. He appeared in 61 games in three seasons here and, even though he was part of two NBA title teams, he averaged just nine minutes a game in those playoff runs. His Lakers highlight actually occurred when he was on his back, in Game 1 of the 2001 NBA Finals, when Philadelphia’s Allen Iverson disrespectfully stepped over and stared at him after making a game-clinching jumper against him. Lue had five steals in that game, but the only thing anyone will remember is that Iverson step. So, no, Lue is not being hired because of his time with the Lakers any more than he is being hired for his brief stint as a Clippers assistant. Lue is being hired because of five months with LeBron, in 2016, when he moved down the bench to replace the LeBron-fired David Blatt to become the Cleveland Cavaliers’ head coach on Jan. 22. He proceeded to coach the Cavaliers to their first NBA title in the spring with a stirring comeback from a three-games-to-one deficit in the Finals against the Golden State Warriors. Advertisement The next two seasons, he smartly coached them back into the Finals where they were beaten soundly each time by the Warriors. He was particularly strong in the playoffs, even outdueling Boston bench genius Brad Stevens in consecutive Eastern Conference finals. Then last fall, after LeBron left for the Lakers, his Cavaliers were winless in six games when he was fired. So Lue never has had any coaching success without LeBron. And LeBron experienced the greatest moment of his career — bringing a title to his hometown — with Lue. So here we are, and here they are, together again. Is he a better choice than the Lakers’ other candidate, Monty Williams, the Philadelphia assistant who just joined the Phoenix Suns? For this team, at this moment, yes. Advertisement Is he the best possible choice out of all the other coaching possibilities the Lakers refused to entertain in what may be the most narrow giant coaching search in NBA history? Of course not. The biggest question is, can he salvage the remainder of the LeBron era in Los Angeles? That’s an unknown, and involves more than just his whiteboard scribblings. Lue certainly can coach LeBron, but this team needs more than LeBron. The question is whether Lue’s presence will help them attract a top free agent they so desperately need this summer. Right now, they appear out of the running for the top guys, and there’s no immediate indication that Lue can change that, but you never know. Maybe he can convince the league’s elite that with him on the bench, LeBron will become interested and invested again. Maybe he can sell someone that with this championship duo in charge, the Lakers can become a force again. Or maybe recruits now look at the Lakers as having now gone so far down the LeBron rabbit hole, they’re beyond hope. Maybe anyone who once wanted to come to the Los Angeles Lakers will bristle at the idea of playing for the LeBron Lakers, and make no mistake, that’s who they are. Advertisement Of course, chances are it doesn’t matter who is coaching the Lakers; if dudes don’t want to play with LeBron, they’re not coming anyway, so maybe Lue’s effect in that area will be insignificant. No matter what happens, the Tyronn Lue era will begin not with answers, but with another question, one that sadly epitomizes a coaching search in which nobody searched, a question from the Lakers to The King himself. So, what else do you need? bill.plaschke@latimes.com Advertisement Get more of Bill Plaschke’s work and follow him on Twitter @BillPlaschke<doc-sep>LeBron James is going to be reunited with the coach who helped him bring a title to Cleveland. The Los Angeles Lakers are reportedly going to move forward with Tyronn Lue as their next head coach, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. There’s a catch, however. The Lakers haven’t actually made an offer yet. The expectation is the Lakers will move toward Ty Lue as head coach, but there's been no offer made to him yet, league sources tell ESPN. — Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 3, 2019 The Lakers brought in Lue for an interview in late April. He reportedly made a “lasting impression” on the team. The Lakers also interviewed Philadelphia 76ers assistant Monty Williams for the position. Williams was taken out of the running Friday, as he signed a five-year deal to coach the Phoenix Suns. That could explain why the Lue news leaked now despite it still being early in the process. Assuming Lue still wants the position, the two sides should be able to come together on a deal soon. While the Lakers weren’t particularly good this season, the team is on the upswing heading into the summer. Tyronn Lue and LeBron James are reportedly close to reuniting with the Lakers. (Photo by Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images) The Lakers are expected to pursue at least one more star to play with James. The team has been mentioned in rumors for pretty much every superstar on the market — including Kyrie Irving and Kawhi Leonard. Los Angeles could also rekindle trade talks with the New Orleans Pelicans for Anthony Davis. It’s no secret James would love to play with Davis. Landing another star would put Lue in a situation he knows well. The last time Lue was able to pair James with a strong supporting cast, they pulled off the impossible. ——— Chris Cwik is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik More from Yahoo Sports:<doc-sep>
The fact that Tyronn Lue will be the next head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers is perhaps the worst-kept "secret" in professional sports, but the the team took the next step towards hiring him on Friday when they (finally) officially reached out to him to discuss the job they've been expected to offer him ever since it became clear Monty Williams was no longer an option. Tania Ganguli and Broderick Turner — basically the Woodward and Bernstein of this coaching search — broke the news for The L.A. Times: The Lakers began conversations with Tyronn Lue’s representatives Friday, Lue’s 42nd birthday, and those discussions are expected to end their search for a head coach. While this news doesn't officially make Lue getting hired a done deal, and the two sides obviously have to work out a contract they both agree on, all signs seem to point to this getting done soon. For one thing, Lakers star LeBron James clearly wants this to happen, even if he and his representatives reportedly aren’t directly telling the Lakers to get it done. There is also the fact that the Lakers are already selling this in a way that makes it seem like a decision that was preordained by the Lakers greats, with leaks that everyone from former coach Phil Jackson to Magic Johnson are endorsing Lue for the gig. At some point I’m sure we’ll get a leak that he was always Kobe Bryant’s favorite teammate too, or something, just to complete the Lakers lore carwash. So if this is so done done, what’s the hold up? Well, Lue — and James and his reps, for that matter — are in Las Vegas for the Canelo-Jacobs fight, which probably means it will take slightly longer to hammer out the details, and while the two sides already had two interviews to talk over how Lue would handle the job, they probably need a few days to iron out specifics like compensation, how many guaranteed years Lue will get and other contract details. Still, it would seem unlikely that any of those stop this from getting done, and we’ll have more thoughts when it does, so stay tuned to Silver Screen and Roll for the latest updates as this process finishes up. We’re in the home stretch now. The Lakers almost have a coach. For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen.