I don't think Luke is perfect, but I really don't think this team is his fault. I think it's becoming clear the guys we drafted may not be guys to build around. I don't blame anyone for that as we took the player everyone wanted us to take in the given situations (I'm speaking specifically of Randle and Russell). But what is actually happening this season for me is instead of getting upset that Luke is the wrong guy, I'm starting to think Byron (while a bad coach) wasn't near as bad as we thought. We have three guys in Randle, Clarkson and Russell who are jut losers. That sounds harsh, and I do not mean they are losers in life. What I mean is they play losing basketball. Randle has an amazing night statistically last night. In the next game he'll be non-existent. These guys don't seem to have the drive to be good all the time. They figure they can do something amazing and coast off that for a while as opposed to trying to do better each night. What was Byron supposed to do with that type of mentality? What is Luke supposed to do? If you have players that don't want it, you could be Greg Popovich and you'd still get throttled like this. Maybe Randle and Russell will be decent players somewhere else, but it's not going to be here. I still think Ingram and Zubac can be salvaged, but at this point, now that the front office is gone, I want as many of these players off the roster as possible. Even if it means taking a loss on some guys, it's not like we can be any worse. We need to change the culture on this team and that doesn't start and end with just clearing out a couple dudes that sit in offices high above the practice facility.
thats absolutely right. Scott was too old school to handle this smart enough. Luke is much more lenient. Scott was also just not a guy you would root for because he was a jerk from a human perspective. On top of all of this he wasn't exactly a mastermind on either end of the floor. So overall Luke >>>>>> Scott, regardless of the perspective. But Scott looked worse here in particular because he couldn't deal with a bunch of chumps that didn't have the mindset that an oldschool guy would require. And Scott didn't have the ability to change that and develop them. Walton took over a team with a lot of terrible habits, a team comfortable with losing and a team not having a clear direction. So far this team has made no progress under his wing, so there is that but it makes Scott not look as terrible.
Best part was Spectrum Sportsnet keeping the camera on their guys getting checked out on the bench and eventually leaving to go into the locker room. Then you look at Julius and its like nothing happened.
Becoming the worst coach in the history of the NBA coach over 1000 games didn't happen in three seasons with the Lakers. It took a lot of dedication to sucking in order for that to happen. He may not suck as bad as we thought he did, but he's nowhere near as good as he thinks he is.
He gets away with that quite a bit. It'd bother me if he wasn't on my team. Not to mention the way Julius plays, he's becoming one of those guys who has a ton of contact every play and so a lot of physicality goes uncalled both for and against him.
I feel like he's more physically punishing than Biff. I love that Beast mode thing he does. Biff is still a bit more athletic but also more of a flopper. Julius can dish it out but he can take it too. He's preternaturally strong. I think Biff's a roid rager.
I like Julius far, far more than Biff. But Biff came into the league with a very similar physicality. It wasn't until he and Chris Paul started going that Griffin started flopping to get calls. Otherwise they're both highly athletic power forwards that can pass well and can't shoot. Griffin is better, but I think they're more comparable than people realize.
