Ex-Coach Luke Walton Discussion

Not at all. Luke is playing a very one dimensional style of basketball. High PnR out top every time. That style only works with 4 out spacing. A good coach won't try to force a cube into a circular hole, and can adapt when presented with different sets of players. Phil did this really well. First running the Triangle through Jordan/Pippen, then Shaq, then Kobe, and then Gasol/Kobe/Bynum. The offense looked different under all those times.

It's also why Mike D'Antoni, another subpar coach, looked good in Phoenix, sucked in NY and LA, and now is looking okay again in Houston. He can only play one way, and he's exposed when that's not an option.

There's a lot of offenses we could have run that would have looked good. Luke chose one of the worst for this roster. That's on him, ten out of ten times.

 

Just fire the dude already...go get me Monty Williams...

 

Is it possible that Jordan/Pippen, Shaq/Kobe, and Gasol/Kobe/Bynum were just as responsible as Phil for making the offense work?

Just a thought.

 

nah. doesn't fit the narrative.

i also don't feel like luke just ran high pick and roll all the time prior to lebron getting here. could just be my memory, though.

watching a laker game last year was not at all like watching a dantoni team, imo.

 

Fire Luke. Ship the young guys out and bring LeBron the greatest of all times in now ..... ooops bring in the Panzer again. Hey how's all that working out for you, Trader LVBD?

 

as frustrating as the offense and Luke have been at times this year, we might be underestimating how much he dumbed down the offense he wanted to run in order to fit these "playmakers."

 

I'm done with Luke. You can be, too.

LOL

 

That's not the point. You can't fit a cube into a circular hole. Give Walton the 2006 Suns, and he probably does fine. Give him the 2011 Mavs, and he's out in the first round.

You have to design an offense that caters to your roster. Not the other way around.

 

He ran it a lot. And his offensive sets were elementary compared to most of the league. I'm including last year in a lot of the criticism of the Laker offense. I wasn't posting here then but I have writeups elsewhere pointing this out.

It wasn't like watching a D'Antoni team because the initial PnR blew up, and we'd ISO Ingram, Randle, or Brook Lopez (yes, seriously) out on the perimeter at times. Randle bully ball was enough to score a lot of times in those situations, but doesn't mean we were a well coached team, at all.

 

Per Desert News:

 

He probably sees the writing on the wall...come the end of the season, the whole coaching staff is gone.

 

Wasn’t Stanford interested in him too?

 

improved win totals every year. Not bad for a developmental coach

 

time for my annual state of the Lakers post:

Luke did not hire a shooting coach. It shows in the games they were blowing due to poor FT's. He jerked his players and rotations around without much sense. He has severely limited vision at the offensive end, both strategy and tactics. He was mostly unable to modify on the fly.

Only thing he was good at was defense. The team did show consistent improvement at that end during his time here to where they were competitive there last fall before the team fell apart following Lebron's injury.

Everyone talks about what a people person Luke is. I think they're missing what happened with key players such as Randle and KCP.

Verdict: yeah he was given a poor roster around Lebron. Yeah he still did something when everybody was healthy, but when the team fell apart, he was badly exposed. He must have good and great players to make him look good, anything less and he looks very ordinary, very unable to get more out of what he has on hand, heavily dependent on them to play over their heads as a certain South Bay Laker is doing now.

Fire him.

That said, Maginka are on notice this is an extraordinarily crucial offseason. Maybe the most crucial since 1996. Lebron's window is limited. That Russell trade is supposed to pay off this summer. They need to get the new coach right and they need to get the roster around Lebron right. They don't learn from their mistakes, they should go too. That Zubac trade? They can't be doing that again. Probably ought to have a hard look at the trainer staff too while they're at it.

It ain't just the stars, it's how the roster around them gets filled. Jordan and Pippen won all those titles with Phil Jackson, but their GM Jerry Krause never gets enough credit for building and evolving the roster around the two superstars. To give you an idea what Krause did, Jordan and Pippen were the *only* players common to all six championship rosters. Everyone else was changed out at least once between the first title and the last one. That's what a really good GM can do for a team. Maginka are not Krause. Not by a long shot.

 

So are the odds still favoring Luke a goner?

He's 6-3 in the last 9 with scrubs (and LBJ for a couple games). If we beat Portland Tuesday and finish 7-3 for the final ten tomorrow, after knocking off 3 playoff teams in a row, all of whom are jostling for position, how does this effect Luke's job security? Surely Jeannie is watching. People like James Worthy and Rob Horey are saying he's the best man available for the job.

But much like his ability to time getting injured a few weeks before the trade deadline each year as a player, Luke is showing great timing in getting this group to play within a system at the right time. If Maj/Rob can him this summer does it send a bad look out there to potential candidates? We already have a trigger-happy rep (remember Brown's 5-game season) though this is a different regime.

 

these end of season wins mean as much for Luke coaching abilities as Caruso # means he's a legit nba player.

 

Caruso can play as a rotational player. Bad take IMO.

 

we saw flashes from these types of players for the last 3-4 yrs, even Nwaba and its misleading IMO....put him in beginning of season and that gleague lvl player will show up no doubt about it.

 

No one ever improves, as he clearly has since he's a grinder and keeps working. Nwaba has been a rotational player for Chicago. Such a cynic. These teams at the end are fighting for playoff positioning.