Ex-Coach Luke Walton Discussion

Must be the first time Luke is like one of the more athletic guys playing the game

 

Early on he was driving me insane with his bad lineups and benching of Randle (though some of the Randle scarcity could well have been from the FO directive), but later he seemed to get more intuitive and sharper about his lineups. He really improved our defense which was great to see. 35 wins with the amount of injuries we had was also a rock solid improvement and 9 more than last year.

 

Not to mention with a makeshift roster where most of the talent was under 24 years old. After a bumpy start, Luke found his groove and the team of misfits bought in. He did a great job.

 

I think he and his coaching staff have developed our players well. Looking at what Bryan did with Ingram and his shot over last off-season I'm anxious to see how they continue to develop with our coaches.

But as others have mentioned. You don't win in this league without talent. Popovich will be the first to tell you that it's about the players. Let's hope Luke gets some real talent this off-season to go with our very promising young core. We already know Luke can manage and coach great players with his year of head coaching experience with the Warriors and the strong respect those players had for Luke

 

Easily could have been a .500 season...that December swoon, the injuries, the trade, horrendous free throw shooting and that Lillard guy.

 

Ultimately....yes. But that time hasn't come yet. To me he had a difficult job in trying to win to attract FAs and at the same time prioritize youth development and possibly lose.

With that said I don't think he did too great. He didn't handle Russell the right way, he didn't handle Randle the right way, nor did I feel that he handled Zubac particularly well. On the other hand his favorites (Lonzo, Ingram) could do no wrong and getting minutes regardless of their play.

As a coach, you must be able to adjust to your players and handle them according to their personality, no matter how difficult they might be. His sub patterns could drive you insane, his in game adjustments sometimes could be head scratching...

With all that said, he had a very difficult task and I would say our youth players have developed just fine looking back. So there is a chance that behind closed doors, his actions were necessary/warranted. We will never fully know how good a coach by judging him based on what we see on the court because we don't see the off court stuff or locker room stuff to fully understand.

I would give him a B honestly. I'm happy with him right now.

 

^I didn't disagree with you. Ya, sometimes we don't know whats going on. What the reasoning is behind the decisions being made.

Obviously we have improved but considering how young we are, anything else would be mind boggling. I expect us to make a move to above 40 wins even with the exact same roster because of the internal growth. We might have even reached 40 wins this season without all the injuries to Thomas, Ingram, Lonzo and the benching of Julius early in the season and KCPs suspension and what not.

I think we did as good as we could have expected honestly from a winning perspective.