By Jason Reed

Sports Editor

Now that the Los Angeles Lakers have been swept out of the playoffs and are done playing the most disappointing season in franchise history; I’ve come up with the best offseason move for this summer.

The Lakers should fire head coach Mike D’antoni. It clearly didn’t work. With all the hype that was built up last summer when the team acquired Dwight Howard (being the center piece) and Steve Nash, things went wrong from the start.

Now I understand, D’antoni wasn’t the head coach in the beginning of the season, Mike Brown was. I don’t want to get into Brown, but from the moment they hired him after Phil Jackson left, I knew that he (Brown) wasn’t the man for the job.

Just like D’antoni, Brown just doesn’t fit the Lakers system.Now I’m not saying D’antoni is not a good coach, but that’s the problem, he’s good, not great.

Check D’antoni’s track record, when he was in Phoenix coaching the Suns, they won 50 plus games in four of the five years he was there. They did that because D’antoni’s system seems as if it is just trading baskets with opponents.

Every time he took the Suns into the postseason, they came up short. The reason they weren’t successful in the playoffs, (in terms of winning a championship) is because teams like the San Antonio Spurs and their head coach Greg Popovich teaches their teams to play defense.

The Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks showed D’antoni that up-tempo basketball doesn’t work in the playoffs. At some point in time, you’re going to have to play defense.

The Lakers averaged 102 points per game this season under D’antoni.  The down side to that great offensive statistic is that they allowed opponents to score 101 points per game.

If I had it my way and it was up to me to hire a new coach for the Lakers, I would listen to what Jackson has to say and would give him the position back.

The only guy I would consider if Jackson wasn’t interested, is former  Utah Jazz head coach and Hall of Famer, Jerry Sloan.