Byron Scott: Lakers' next franchise player should be free-agent signee

Though his team is in an ostensible rebuilding phase, Los Angeles Lakers head coach Byron Scott's public support for his young players this season has been uneven at best.

From sitting this year's second overall pick in fourth quarters in favor of Lou Williams, to questioning the maturity of last year's seventh overall pick, to accusing both of selfishness and arrogance, Scott hasn't given the sense he's instilling confidence (or has much faith) in the Lakers' future.

He didn't do much to alter that perception when talking to reporters Monday.

Scott agreed with Kobe Bryant's recent assessment that nobody on the current iteration of the Lakers is ready to take up the torch and lead the team into the uncertain, Bryant-less future. Scott suggested that the best candidate to do so wouldn't even come from within the organization.

Scott then implied that while the members of the team's young core can make for good role players down the road, franchise players they are not.

"I don't look at any of those guys as being our next Kobe anyway," he said. "They can be a piece of it."