No worries. Basketball masterminds Maginka have their sight set on Jason Kidd. Just like they wanted tough play makers instead of shooters around LeBron. They ain't getting trapped, they thug.
Smart thing to do - Fire Luke over the All-Star break to minimize damage and to give yourself extended to research the next coach and make sound decision for next year Reality - Fired the day before FA period opens, panic hire some retread turd and then wonder why things just haven’t quite worked out
I am firmly on Luke’s side. I don’t want to fire him, at all. Mainly because I don’t trust the FO in hiring a better replacement.
I think that’s actually the reason I’m okay with him getting fired. I mean on the reasons to get rid of him list I’ve got questionable rotations, questionable staff, questionable development of young players, questionable relationship with veterans, questionable in game adjustments, non-existent offense, etc. On the list of reasons to keep him I’ve got “not sure who to replace him with.” Yes, the roster isn’t constructed well but there’s enough there that we should be in the playoffs. The stats say we’re good overall defensively even though my eyes often reject that notion. But the biggest reason to keep him is usually the worry of who would tell him. I’m not sure that’s a good reason to keep someone in a job. Actually I know it isn’t. I’ve been on team patience with Luke from minute one but I’m also on team ready to start winning again. Luke needs to clearly show he’s our guy to end this season.
I’m back and forth on Luke. He is definitely not the sole reason for us being where we are right now and at the end of the day he’d just be the fall guy. Our FO deserve plenty of blame here too. I don’t think a new coach midseason would fix this mess right now. This team is clearly fractured. LeBron literally tweeting “where’s Woj” during the Super Bowl when almost all of his teammates were in trade rumors. How would you feel if you were them? Just watching these games you can see it in their body language. I get that it’s a business, they are professionals but at the end of the day these are kids, 21 and 23 year olds. It is clearly affecting them. All these injuries too haven’t helped at all either. What can go wrong has gone wrong for us this year. They need to come together and decide if they want to proceed as a unit or as a group of individuals because I don’t see a team out there right now. Minimal effort, zero communication, poor body language, you name a bad quality we’re exhibiting it. I was looking forward to this road trip as being an east coast fan of a west coast team it’s never fun to stay up and watch games until 1:30 AM and all of these games were on at a normal time. We went what, 1-5? And that game in Boston 9 times out of 10 would have been a loss so we almost were WINLESS. Think about that for a second! We can make the playoffs, but do we want to? We’ll find out. This honestly has not been a fun year to watch this team as a lifelong fan, PLEASE make the second half bearable!
This year has turned into a suckathon and I blame the injury bug first and neck and neck with it Magic, Rob and Klutch once LeBron was here. They've gone and really f***** up the whole team first attitude and closeness all that time was spent building. Like OX has said they thought they could pull a fast one on getting AD here and it has blown up totally in their faces and Luke will take the fall. Shudder to think who they bring in next. Read the comments below that article above from Broderick Turner linked by Tania or here below as it's on Yahoo's front page now. Throw a tent over this circus. They went and blew the team all to hell as far as running through walls for the organization. https://www.yahoo.com/sports/report...ely-finish-season-lakers-coach-212142769.html
I agree its wrong to pt all the fingers at Luke but lets just look at some teams with coaching change with similar team makeup but have gone to do better then prior coach Bud (Bucks)- Last yr they transition from Jkidd to an interim but still made playoffs just no success now a serious ECF candidate and possible finals candidate Malone (Den)- Well hes not new but when he initially signed with Den they became instant playoff contenders and now have 2nd best record in the west with mostly same team as last yr The pool of candidates we see out there now isn't appealing but that doesn't/shouldn't mean Luke should still have a job as this teams HC. Yes we've had injuries, yes half of the roster is new, yes the team needs to acclimate to James and vice versa. I conceede those facts for Luke but at the same time you should not be the worse D in the league with 1 guy missing nor should you be the worse O with 1 guy missing. I keep seeing people suggest this roster isn't built correctly and I agree IF we're debating "contention" wise but to still use that "excuse" to justify the record is DAM shameful with the roster we have.
I'm good with letting Luke finish out the year and I respect the FO's decision to keep him here for that. After this season though? As I've mentioned many times, I don't think he'll be here long term. If we miss the playoffs he should be fired. If we make the playoffs and we get swept he should get canned. If we somehow miraculously make it to the second round and have an ok showing? Well, I think he might save himself. Not sure though. Anything less than the second round and he is gone I believe.
I think it would be smart to keep Luke long term, but once stories started leaking that LeBron was not a fan, it was clear Luke's fate was sealed. We will have a new coach of LeBron's choosing next year. I just hope that LeBron is better at picking coaches than Jim and Mitch were.
Yep, props for showing more depth in your Luke critique... And it's justified. Every coach has issues: there's talk that Stevens is a better coach for up and coming teams as oppose to managing veteran players and their personalities, like Ky. So Luke needs to start looking at himself in trying to employ a system where it puts your players at the best opportunity to succeed. Having MDA run Kobe into the ground was insane. You can't do the same thing to Bron. I started to raise my brow towards Luke when he made these comments: Yet we rank 22nd in offensive efficiency since his return and still play fast AF ranked 4th in PACE with LeGroin coming back from a grade 2 strain. When's it going to change, Luke? Running during the regular season is one thing...where are our go-to sets when PACE slows down in the postseason. Bfc's been saying it and now it's time for that to show up, particularly since our defense can no longer shield that type of offensive ineptitude. I truly believe Luke lost the team after the dubs game dust-up. Since that game, our defense has been trash and like khmrp said, that's not cause Zo and Hart ain't playing...defense is a team element.
and the "pace" is also something we're gona get embarrased with IF they do get into the playoffs. Game slows down alot in the playoffs and we're horrible in half court sets even when we were fully healthy, thats why there were so many games where we got out to big leads and either lost the game or had to fight back late in the 4th to regain control.
I say get rid of Walton now. FA's will want to know who the coach is before they sign here. If we fire him in April, we better know who we're hiring by July 1st, that's for sure.