Ex-Coach Luke Walton Discussion

Appreciate the honesty.

 

They aren't going to fire him now, nor do I want them to until we see what he and the team does this year. I am interested in replacing him in the summer if he doesn't achieve what he's supposed to (make the playoffs minimum). I don't think we can afford to give him another year if he doesn't. Do you agree?

 

If innovative or different is your criteria for a new coach hire you're going to have a verrry short list to shop from.

 

show me where I said the rest of the league's coaches and assistants aren't good at what they do. I'm just frustrated that some fans just point the finger at our coaching staff when I think there are other issues we're having in games that are causing us to falter.

I'm been clear in saying Luke is not without fault but the primary blame should go to the players. At the end of the day they have to make the shots, box out (hustle), take care of the ball (stop with the unforced turnover), make your free throws, and stop fouling so much. Little things, that at the end of the game add up to a lot and in many cases as we've seen a loss coming down to final possessions.

What I think Luke is doing poorly at is having so many different lineups and just not sticking with something. Hopefully, with Rondo and Ingram back now and Luke sticking with a starting lineup the last 2 games players can get used to playing with each other. Another area I think Luke needs to do better in is scheming late game situations. Lebron is great but we can have better movement and plays to get the defense moving more.

 

For example to the bolded part:

We held MIN to 42-43 FG% for the game. That should have been good enough to win the game compared to how many points we scored but what did we do fail to box out (gave way too many 2nd chance points) and turned the ball over more than we had all year. Luke pointed out after the game that the players failed to go over the screen on Butlers 3 point shots in that 4th quarter when the game plan all along was to to over. We went under which Butler was able to hit a few and after that.... well he got into a rhythm and we saw what happened to close the game. We also put them at the free throw line where they made close to twice as many as we attempted.

It's the details our players aren't consistent with yet

 

Either that or the players just need to do their job more consistently. Last I checked they were the ones with the ball in their hands on the court during the game.

 

We've lost to Portland in Portland where we never win on opening night. We lost to the Rockets when they had both Harden and Paul playing. We lost to the Spurs who are the epitome of stability twice. And we lost to the Timberwolves. Every loss was close. We were missing key players. We handed the league leading Nuggets their only loss.

I'm actually a little surprised Magic would get on him about the team's performance at this early juncture. Maybe Magic should have gone after a legitimate backup center instead of more Mana and Beasley.