Ex-Coach Luke Walton Discussion

"Luuuke" or "Booooo"?

https://www.latimes.com/sports/stor...t-on-coach-luke-walton-after-kings-slow-start

 

the article is fair. i thought walton was hamstrung by a tough situation in la, and i don't think the kings have as great a roster as some folks apparently thought prior to the season. i thought they spent weirdly in the offseason and that not all their young pieces really fit well together. should they be 1-5 or whatever? probably not. should they be much better? probably not.

and no, they can't just fire walton, maybe not even if they're terrible all year. they've been making their bed, wetting it, and having to sleep in it for years.

walton probably should have taken an assistant gig, tbh. he may not recover from this for a while if they go down the tubes on his watch.

 

Yeah I was thinking this today. That being said, I think some of the guys who played under him here are doing better without him as their coach. I really think Walton tried too hard to make everyone equal, instead of figuring out who his studs were and riding them as far as he could. He never really figured out his rotations here. Some of that is on the FO but more of it is on him. He played around with his rotations more than any coach the Lakers have had. Now we see what BI is doing with a more defined role. Makes you wonder how much he was hampered here.

 

BI would get rolling here then get hurt. i haven't watched a ton of NO games, but the bits i've seen look similar to what he did here, he's just converting more.

 

you always assert he's the same player but converting more and have high usg...there some stat tracker now that says his 1-2 dribble and shoot has gone up signifcantly, something like 30-40% of his O is like that now as oppose to 10-15% last season. Luke sucks, the system sucked, the drama sucked here for BI, I'm glad he is getting his shine and NO he is not the same player he was here that converts more, his efficently is ridiculous for someone avg. 28/gm

 

we'll see if he hits 55% and 48% from three for the full season. if so, pretty sure that's not on the lakers scheme or development. i'm positive we wanted him to make more shots (including FTs, btw, where he's also up several percentage points) and worked with him to do so.

iow, walton's absence isn't making him a better shooter.

 

Sac fans are complaining about the same crap on O as we did with Luke, some of BI iso issues were on Luke and his crappy a** offense. Luke always emphazid ball mov't but yet the team was terrible at that aspect

 

in part because randle, clarkson, and ingram were all low iq players.

obviously, walton's not popovich. but trying to pin all of our young guys' failures on him isn't fair. i'm guessing luke is watching him can open threes and wondering where the hell that was when it could have saved his ball movement offense.

 

Maybe not but I really don't think Walton knew how to find ways for guys to be successful. Putting them in position to do their best. Not sure he did.

 

i don't know that he did, either. but i do know that teams left ingram wide open from three and he didn't make them pay. now he is. he also missed more fts. those things aren't on walton or even our development guys, imo.

i think there's something to the idea that there's more pressure to play in la. maybe the young guys can't handle it.

 

Looked like he coached us in the first 3 quarters and then coached the Bulls in the 4th yesterday.

 

Luke has them playing some ball. We looked awful in our win, but to go the distance with us and beat Boston. That says something.

 

If not Gentry I bet ole Lavar is still blaming Luke for this year’s latest Lonzo injury.

 

I think having Lebron was a major issue for Walton. He's not an easy guy to coach. Frank has shown an ability to work around the issues having a star like Lebron causes, but would still like to see his minutes closer to 30-32 per game. Hopefully we'll get there when everyone is healthy.

 

wait...so is luke good now? or are we just going to revise every few weeks based on sac's current streak?

 

I think it's too soon to tell. He's still growing as a young coach. I think he is good with a young crew and isn't ready for a veteran, playoff team. Whether that's his ceiling or if he can learn to improve on things, like in game adjustments and mind boggling rotations.

Vlade and that front office is so awful at signings and roster construction that they're definitely not doing Luke any favors.

 

I hope he's wildly successful except against us

 

right; kinda like we didn't do him any favors. again, i'm not a staunch luke defender (i wanted to hire atkins, for example), but he got an unfair amount of blame for our problems, which were largely roster-based. he'll face that in sac in perpetuity, though, which is why i think he should have taken another assistant job.

 

Yep, not Luke's fault that for some reason Magic and Rob thought that JAVALE MCGEE could be our only big for, well, reasons. Even the media questioned that in that infamous press conference.