James Worthy steeled himself, then offered a blunt assessment.

The Lakers, in the midst of a losing season, had reached their nadir with a 48-point loss to the Clippers. The Hall of Famer glared into the camera and did what many other analysts would have.

He blamed the coach.

“(Mike) D’Antoni’s got to get into these guys a little bit more,” said Worthy on that night nearly two years ago. “He’s got to make them really a little bit more responsible, maybe call guys out.”

Worthy, an analyst with Time Warner Cable SportsNet, said the Lakers’ problems could be traced to the locker room, that they should practice only defense and that an offense focused on pace of play and 3-pointers simply wasn’t working.

Such frank analysis was welcomed by fed-up fans begging for a change on the bench. It’s also the sort of criticism from which Byron Scott, a teammate of Worthy’s from 1983-93, has recently been spared during an 11-43 season.

Worthy is one of four former “Showtime”-era Lakers navigating the potentially murky waters of analyzing a team coached by a close friend.

While sports analysts frequently call games involving former teammates, coaches and rivals, the dynamic gets more complicated when the analysts are day-to-day observers of the team.

Former Kings guard-turned-analyst Bobby Jackson turned heads last week when he called for a coaching change in Sacramento.

Scott has been under a microscope since he was hired in 2014 after D’Antoni resigned at the conclusion of a 27-55 season.

In Scott’s tenure, the Lakers are 32-104.

Bashing Scott is fashionable among fans and he has been widely panned by national media. He appears at or near the top of any list of coaches on the hot seat.

The Lakers are not believed to be considering a mid-season coaching change, but it is a results-driven league. Five NBA coaches have been fired since the start of the season, including former Lakers guard Derek Fisher with the improving New York Knicks.

Worthy is aware of a perception that he has taken it easier on Scott than he did his predecessor

He even agrees.

“People have opinions based on Byron and I being close,” Worthy said after a recent Lakers practice, “but that has nothing to do with it.”

Instead, he argued, D’Antoni’s Lakers were built to win with Dwight Howard, Steve Nash and a healthy Kobe Bryant.

“I had an opportunity to be more critical then,” Worthy said. “But I see what Byron’s doing. I’m in the film room, I see the practices, I see the guys buying into it. They just haven’t been able to transfer it out to the court yet.”

When Scott made the unpopular decision to move D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle out of the starting lineup on Dec. 6, Worthy initially recoiled with surprise.

By the end of that night’s broadcast, he had come around.

“I think Byron’s right,” Worthy said. “Sometimes you have to allow younger players to watch from the bench.”

Video of the segment was posted on the network’s Facebook page. The first comment, from a user named Lynne No, said, “James Worthy was always so candid about D’Antoni. Where’s your truth now James regarding Byron?”

• • •

Worthy’s truth is that analysts, like fans, need to be patient.

It’s a common sentiment among several of Scott’s former teammates who regularly provide analysis in the media.

Mychal Thompson is the color commentator on the team’s radio broadcasts. Michael Cooper and A.C. Green are members of a rotation of former Lakers who appear as studio analysts alongside Worthy on Time Warner Cable SportsNet.

They all won at least two championships together. Each man is close with Scott, to varying degrees.

Scott hired Worthy as a part-time assistant coach to work with frontcourt players in September; Cooper was Scott’s mentor after the Lakers traded for his draft rights in 1983; Green is the godfather to Scott’s daughter and is a regular volunteer at practices.

“I think they should be critical of me at times,” Scott said recently. “That’s their job.”

Scott worked as a TWC SportsNet analyst in 2013-14, the season before he was hired as head coach, and says he understands his friends’ responsibilities.

Still, Cooper said it’s difficult to assess Scott’s job performance “because I’ve known him so long.”

“For the people that are criticizing him, shame on you,” Cooper said. “But it comes with that territory. You look at the players, they’re young and this and that. But after a while you have to start looking at the coach. That’s usually what happens.”

Thompson, who also co-hosts a mid-morning radio show on KSPN/710, said he criticizes Scott “respectfully, as you would any coach.”

“I treat all coaches with respect,” Thompson said, “whether I know them personally or just on a professional level.”

The benefit of the doubt Worthy and his former teammates give Scott has been in stark contrast to outside opinions; never more so than last week when Clippers analyst Don MacLean excoriated Scott on the “Petros & Money Show” on KLAC/570.

During the interview, MacLean, who trained Russell in the weeks before June’s draft, criticized Scott for not giving the rookie guard more freedom. He said Scott relies on “archaic schemes” employing “no imagination (and) no creativity on the offensive end.”

Scott did not directly respond to MacLean’s comments, but said it’s easier to accept criticques from his former teammates, especially Worthy and Green, because they are frequently around the team.

“For somebody to come in and say you should do this and do that,” Scott said, “they haven’t spent one time in our meetings, they haven’t been in training camp, they haven’t been to preseason, they haven’t been to any regular season games.

“That’s just your idea of what we should do. … So I don’t pay that much attention.”

When Worthy has called out the Lakers this season, he has typically focused on players rather than the coaching.

“We expect effort and we criticize (the team) for that,” Worthy said. “We criticize them for points in the paint. But for decisions made by Byron right now, going through this experimental growth period, there’s nothing to be critical of.”

While TWC SportsNet is not owned by the Lakers, the network could fairly be considered an extension of the organization. The team’s official television partner, it is the home for all games, nightly studio shows and original programming. The sides are in the fourth year of a 20-year agreement reportedly worth $3 billion.

Broadcasters on such a platform are expected to be lenient, if not supportive.

However, as Worthy’s frustration with D’Antoni illustrated, things don’t always play out so neatly.

• • •

If Worthy’s analysis of D’Antoni was blunt, Jackson, the Kings analyst, was pointed.

After a blowout loss to Brooklyn last week, Jackson’s co-host mentioned that Karl was hired after last year’s All-Star break. Jackson countered, “It can be post-All-Star break that he can leave, too. There ain’t nothing wrong with it. It’s just the business.”

It was quite the missive from a member of the Kings family.

“It’s my opinion that he should be fired or suspended,” Karl’s agent, Warren LeGarie, told the Register in an email. “(There’s) no place for that in a legitimate organization.”

As of Monday, the Kings had given no official response to Jackson’s comments.

A prominent coaching agent, LeGarie also represents D’Antoni and quickly recalls Worthy’s criticisms. He said analysts’ criticism can have real impact.

“They condition their audience, which ultimately influences the management,” he said.

LeGarie pointed out that Jackson is close to Vlade Divac and Peja Stojakovic, former teammates and two of the top three decision-makers in Sacramento. “It’s way more transparent when you know the cast of characters involved and way more obvious then,” LeGarie said. “Except to the fans who take what they say as gospel.”

Larry Meyers, vice president of content and executive producer for TWC Sports Regional Networks, said having analysts who have known Scott for more than 30 years is “potentially tricky” but has not caused any issues.

“Our expectation of our on-air team is that they’re going to be honest and trustworthy and knowledgeable and informed and authentic,” Meyers said. “And that’s all we’ve asked of them. Our view is they’ve done nothing but deliver on those promises. That’s really where we stand on it. I don’t think we see it as a challenge; we see it as an advantage.”

Barry Nash, a Dallas-based on-air talent coach who has helped numerous retired coaches and athletes transition to broadcasting, said the “fraternal” nature of sports teams leads to analysts being “very sensitive and careful about criticizing anyone playing the game.”

“These folks have been through something together,” Nash said. “It’s difficult to understand or appreciate if you have not experienced it yourself. Taking care of each other was part of the code of survival.”

In the event Scott’s former teammates believed the coach needed to be challenged, each said he would be comfortable saying so on air.

“If I knew that he didn’t know what he was doing,” Cooper said, “I would definitely say that. But I know Byron knows what he’s doing.”

Two years after D’Antoni’s departure, fans are once again restless. Many believe another change on the bench could key a reversal of fortune.

There will be critics who agree. And loudly. But Worthy won’t be among them.

“People want to put their process of thinking into our heads,” he said. “And it’s not going to happen.”

Contact the writer: boram@ocregister.com