Lakers reportedly ‘don’t anticipate’ Jason Kidd, Ty Lue being available

Two of the Lakers early top targets are Jason Kidd and Ty Lue, both coaches who are employed and the Lakers don’t expect them to become available.

The Lakers appear to be employing the strategy of “the worst they can say is no” in the early stages of their search for a new head coach.

Two of the most notable names to be linked to the Lakers’ opening have been Jason Kidd and Ty Lue, candidates currently employed elsewhere in the league. While Lue is at least entering the final year of his current deal, neither is particularly realistic.

The Lakers do seem to realize that, though. In his latest Substack newsletter, longtime NBA reporter Marc Stein reported the latest on Kidd and that the Lakers aren’t expecting either him or Lue to be attainable.

“League sources say Kidd is also the likely recipient of a contract extension in the near future, having led Dallas to two 50-win seasons and three playoff series wins in four attempts in his three seasons as Mavericks coach.

I’m told that the Lakers, for their part, don’t anticipate Kidd becoming a coaching free agent any more than they expect to have a shot at Lue”

Likewise to Kidd, reports on Friday were that the Clippers would be looking to negotiate an extension with Lue this summer as well. There’s also the whole part where Lue pretty much shot down joining the Lakers after the Clippers' loss to the Mavericks to bounce out of the first round.

This feels similar to the team’s pursuit of Nick Nurse during their last coaching search. At the time, Nurse was employed by the Raptors and the Lakers had interest in him but it never amounted to anything.

It’s not a done deal that Lue or Kidd won’t be the Lakers head coach next season, but it feels like a longer shot than it has been at any other point. And it was already a pretty big longshot.

The Lakers are going to have to change their approach to some of the other candidates mentioned, whether its assistants, former coaches or candidates who are neither — looking at you, JJ Redick. But it seems like landing the big fish isn’t going to happen this search again.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.