Lakers Coach Patient on Changes To Lineups

The Los Angeles Lakers have stayed consistent with their starting lineup despite a slow 1-9 start, and Byron Scott explained his patient approach to NBCLA.com.

The Los Angeles Lakers have won a couple games in a row, and the plan for the 2014-15 season is clearer to see than it was two wins ago. The Lakers started 1-9, but even if this is period of winning is a temporary euphoria from having Nick Young back, the team is displaying more promise than the 1-9 start hinted.

The Lakers are not an eight-win team or close to it. At 3-9, they're on pace for 20 wins, but even that mark would be a massive underachievement considering the Lakers' recent road trip.

With two games in the bag and a clean sweep of a three game road trip in his sights, Lakers coach Byron Scott deserves credit for sticking with the same unit through the best and worst of times. Also deserving praise, starters Carlos Boozer and Jeremy Lin have responded positively to the coach's confidence after inconsistent starts to the season. Both played well in Atlanta to start the current winning streak.

While Scott has stuck with the same starting lineup since the start the season, fans have wondered why Ed Davis has not cracked the starting five or how Ronnie Price was not inserted into the lineup when Lin was visibly struggling to get involved. In particular, both those players offer better defense that their counterparts.

Luckily, NBC Los Angeles and a couple others caught Scott a day before he took off on the three-game road trip and asked the coach to provide greater insights into his lineups.

Within the context of Ronnie Price starting much of the preseason, had Scott internally gone back and forth with starting Price and moving Lin to bench?

"I've thought about it. So far, it's not the time."

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On why he hadn't made changes to the starting lineup despite the slow start:

"Because, then, I'm abandoning everything that I believe in as far as giving these guys a chance to work together. Ten games or 11 games--that's not enough. So, then, I'll be going against everything that I truly believe in. I think guys need time to jell as a unit, and again, two months is not enough, three months is sometimes not enough...San Antonio have been together forever."

How long in an 82-game season before you can start make changes?

"Two or three months, from training camp on. After that, I think you might have to make changes because certain guys aren't getting it or they just don't gel, and you have to make some changes, put those guys on the bench. They may be better coming off the bench than they are starters. All those things, I have to take into consideration, but I have to give these guys a chance as well."

Less than a month into the season, Scott made it clear not to hold your breath on changes to the Lakers' starting five: Lin, Bryant, Wesley Johnson, Boozer, Jordan Hill.

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