Luke isn’t the best coach, but he’s also not garbage like some here say. As much as some (yes you @Khmrp) likes to hold up offense to show Luke is terrible, you’ll never hear a word about Defense because he’s a good defensive coach, and (when healthy) his teams are way better than they should be defensively looking at the roster. We were like 4th in the west and I believe we would finish 4th or 5th in the west if injuries hadn’t f***ed us. These last losses had nothing to do with Luke. No coach could get a team to play when nearly everybody on the team is supposed to be traded very publicly. Especially after talking all that building a culture crap, then tring yo trade everyone that is supposed to be a part of that culture. That’s on Magic
defensive coach? when he was hired the praise was his offense and now offense looks like s*** we have to give him cred for the defense? lol give me a brake and I never said he garbage, I said hes TERRIBLE ...these Luke defense as a coach is just like Luke as a player after he suckered Mitch into that 7yr deal....oh luke does the little things to help us, blah blah blah
Id bet the house if Luke gets another HC gig, he'll be just as terrible at his new spot as he was here, he's a nice guy and players coach but he clearly doesn't understand alot faucets of the game as far as putting our guys in position to succeed. I'll keep my stance that he's trying to run this team like GSW except we dont have GSW talent pool
Stop it with what he was supposed to be. Luke actually IS a good defensive coach. You know this. You just don’t want to give him the credit. You keep talking about excuses for Luke, stop making excuses for ignoring the positives he brings that go against your crusade to have him fired.
^Luke is a good "defensive assistant.." he's just not "head coaching" material...and I wanted Luke from the very beginning.
In fairness - Ball going out did hurt us defensively. Plus, this team has their head in their a** right now. I've think they have or are very close to "tuning out" Luke.
Jesus we're going House Of Cards everyone watch your back in the organization if they bring in this guy in this unseemly way and pin all this on Luke before the end of the season even gets here. From finally one happy family relatively speaking once Jim and Mitch were sent packing to now this. I bet the atmosphere right now is just toxic around the whole facility. What have these guys got to lose now. Trade me, like you're going to do anyway? Some of these guys may go off internally and tell LeBron to go f*** himself. All respect gone. Before AD trade out of nowhere a week or two earlier he and Klutch started the fire Luke campaign.
Yeah. Luke can't shoot free throws for our team. Do people think Luke is coaching them to miss all those free throws, or to miss all the uncontested 3's? Luke isn't perfect, but no coach is. This roster is terrible as it pertains to construction. No coach would be winning with this. Every commentator (and most people on this board) questioned the roster decisions we made after Lebron. We all wondered how a team with zero perimeter shooting could be consistent on offense. Our team is a poor perimeter shooting team for a team in the 90's, let alone now. I'm not trying to plant my flag on the Luke Walton Hill, but anyone thinking this mess is on him isn't being honest with themselves. Other than maybe Popovich or Carlisle, who is going to coach this team to more wins? Walton is an average NBA coach. If someone else was our coach we may have 1 or 2 more wins, or we may have one or two more losses.
putting everything on roster construction seems disingenious.....are teams like LAC, Sac who are ahead us of more talented or better coached?
I was pretty clear in saying “when healthy” I believe. We were about 7th in the league and had no business being there the past few seasons. That is Luke in large part emphasizing defense and instilling defensive principals the players have bought into.
One thing that comes across is that Luke is a good guy and he's got a terrific outlook and pedigree. I like that about him. I don't love him as a coach and I don't think he will make it to next year but he's not a jerk like Byron and D' Antoni was and he's not as much of a knucklehead as Mike Brown. He's been an upgrade at the very least.
Funny cause we need him to be more like Potato Head. We need him to manage personalities and hire a tip top group of assistants to handle the Xs and Os.
If you want to evaluate JKidd in context, look at the Bucks play and record for the 1st half of last season vs this season. They had the same core roster. I dont have a strong view on whether Luke should go, but I am pretty sure that JKidd is not the answer.