Rumors are out that Brian Shaw is likely to join new Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton's coaching staff next season.

Lakers Nation reported that the former Denver Nuggets head coach and Phil Jackson pupil is "at the top of a short list of candidates" that could be with Walton on the Lakers' bench starting in 2016-2017.

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The 50-year-old Shaw, who is also a former Lakers point guard, was said to be "the obvious choice" to take the place of the Zen Master when he resigned from his post in 2011. However, senior team officials decided against hiring a Jackson protégé and signed former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown instead.

From then on, a trail of bad head coaching hires followed such as Bernie Bickerstaff (interim basis), Mike D'Antoni, and most recently another former Lakers guard, Byron Scott, who handled the team in two of the worst seasons in franchise history.

Shaw was part of the Lakers three-peat winning squad with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal from 2000 to 2002. After retiring at the end of the 2002-2003 season, he then became a part of the team's scouting team before becoming an official assistant coach in the 2004-2005 season. 

His only experience as a head coach so far was two seasons with the Nuggets in 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 where he compiled an overall record of 56-85. He was not able to make the postseason during his stint in Denver and had never made his teams finish above 0.500 in any of the two seasons.

His role with the Lakers this time is also that of an assistant coach, in which he could offer his knowledge of the triangle system to Walton. The two had not been teammates in the Hollywood squad as Walton came in as a rookie one year after Shaw retired from active competition.

However, Shaw had been one of Walton's coaches during his first few seasons as a professional and so the two are highly familiar with each other, as per Bleacher Report.

TagsNBA News & Rumors, Lakers News & Rumors, Los Angeles Lakers, Brian Shaw, Luke Walton, NBA News & Rumors 2016