Top 3 Lakers Head Coaches to Not Win NBA Title

The Los Angeles Lakers have the second-most NBA titles all-time, falling just short of the Boston Celtics' 17 championships.

The Lakers franchise is renowned for winning titles and expecting nothing less every season. Even through rebuilding phases and the lowest moments, the expectation and bar for any coach is when the team will return to the NBA Finals.

The team has a long lineage of superstar players, from Lebron James to Kobe Bryant to Shaquille O'Neal and that is just since the 2000s.

Los Angeles, also known as "La La Land," is a city full of stars and the local NBA team is no exception, always aiming to be the best in the league.

It has not just been great players that have made their legacy in L.A., but also head coaches and front office personnel.

Coaches like Phil Jackson and Pat Riley are known for their stints with the Lakers, winning time and time again.

Other coaches, however, were not so lucky, needing to deal with flawed rosters or developing a roster but not being able to oversee its full potential.

Here are the top three coaches in Lakers history that did not win a title.

Mike D'Antoni

D'Antoni got a really raw deal; he arrived in the middle of a season in which the Lakers had championship aspirations with Nash, Howard, Gasol, and Bryant.

He needed to deal with an aging star in Steve Nash and Dwight Howard, a player who wanted to post up regularly even if it didn't work for the team.

D'Antoni also had to fit his offensive system around Lakers staples Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant. Given the roster and pieces he had to deal with, it was a miracle that the Lakers managed a winning record.

Under the leadership mainly of Bryant, the Lakers had earned a playoff berth, but he would tragically tear his Achilles and effectively end the team's season.

His next and last season would be a rough one, as Howard walked away, Nash retired, and Bryant was set to miss the whole season.

It is hard not to wonder what D'Antoni could have done with a full training camp ahead of the 2012-2013 season.

Apart from his time with the Lakers, D'Antoni created a revolutionary offensive system that saw him have success throughout his career. The principles of his system are still seen in the modern NBA.

Mike Dunleavy

Coaching the Lakers from 1990-1992, Dunleavy took the team to the NBA Finals in his first season, losing out to Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls.

It was a stellar debut season for the coach, though the following was not as good. The team only managed to get the eighth seed, though it was impressive given it was a season that saw Magic Johnson suddenly retire.

The Lakers roster had only Magic Johnson, James Worthy, and A.C. Green as the team's key players with quality depth, but a far cry from a championship team.

While not regarded much in Lakers lore, he played a key role as the Lakers transitioned away from Johnson.

Del Harris

Harris had an amazing 224-116 record during his fifth season as head coach of the Lakers.

He won coach of the year after his first season which saw a lottery team become a squad that has a winning record. They made their way to the Western Conference Finals that season, quite the feat.

He oversaw the initial development of Kobe Bryant, who would become the greatest Laker ever, according to some. He also coached Magic Johnson in his return to the NBA, as well as Nick van Exel.

His teams would continue to get better and he eventually handed off a roster to Phil Jackson that would go on to get the infamous three-peat.

While Jackson rightfully gets credit for delivering the titles, it was Harris's work that played an important role.

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