Lakers to interview David Blatt for head coaching job

Luke Walton and Ettore Messina appear to be the frontrunners for the Los Angeles Lakers head coaching job, but the team reportedly plans to interview a "long list" of candidates for the position. While Jeff Van Gundy and Kevin Ollie have been previously reported to be names on that list, the Lakers also plan to interview David Blatt for the position, according to Marc Stein of ESPN. (Chris Herring of the Wall Street Journal reports that Blatt may also have a shot at the New York Knicks job).

The Cleveland Cavaliers fired Blatt at midseason this year, and if hired he would notably be the third coach out of the last four the Lakers have hired to have been fired by Cleveland in their previous job, joining Mike Brown and Byron Scott on that list.

To group Blatt with those two is slightly unfair, as the Cavaliers team he was fired from made the NBA Finals last year and he was only let go because of a bizarre locker room dynamic that seemed to stem from a lack of respect for him from LeBron James.

Getting the Lakers job would be a re-do of sorts for Blatt, who was brought to the NBA after great success in Europe and Israel to coach a young Cavaliers team that only shifted into a high-pressure situation due to the arrival of James. Blatt signing on to mold the Lakers' young roster would be the sort of responsibility he initially signed up for with the Cavaliers, where it must be noted he won 67.5 percent of his games once the job shifted into win-now mode.

How real of a shot Blatt has at the job remains to be seen, but he is another interesting name to add to the increasingly encouraging list of candidates.

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