Ex-Coach Luke Walton Discussion

It's pretty obvious that Luke is an offensive oriented coach. That's not a problem. Phil Jackson was too and did ok as a coach. But he's going to need to account for the D. Phil did it primarily by running an offensive system that slowed the pace down, and placed his wings in a good defensive starting position on most possessions. Plus he happened to have amazing wing defenders in Pippin, Jordan, Rodman, Kobe and Horry to work with.

Luke's system does not set up the D in the same way as Phil's. Luke doesn't have any one player even in the same solar system as the wings named above with the possible exception of Larry Nance Jr. IMO, there is a reason the team was playing better D when Nance was playing, and worse since Nance's injury. Ingram has the potential to be great on D, but is maybe a year or two away from his potential impact.

I see two needed moves: acquire another wing defender (this is a must). Hire a defensive coordinator to take over coaching the D with a system that works with the present roster (highly recommended).

 

This, I had posted Luke's post game press conference from a view games ago when he said this. Its a myth out there that Luke wants his team to always switch everything.

If you re-watch the first half against Utah from the other night we weren't switching as much and the defensive activity was better. Now was that because we weren't switching as much or was it because we put more effort into that half on that side of the ball?

 

The youth is not an excuse, but it is a reason. They're too immature and THAT I blame a little on coaching.

Defense takes effort and attention and these players clearly aren't exhibiting either on that end. Julius is never paying attention. Russell is never trying hard. Clarkson seems like he's trying, but he frequently is out of position. Thomas Robinson is maybe the worst because he thinks he's doing the right thing when he never is. Or maybe he knows he's doing the wrong thing, but convinces himself otherwise.

What it comes down to is accountability. Raise your hand and accept that you're at fault and then move forward together as a group dedicated to that end of the floor. These kids are too headstrong and too stubborn to get it and so when things get tough they're pointing fingers or giving up. Part of that is coaching. You have to find ways to motivate these guys to play that defense. Other coaches do it with young players. Utah has a great defense.

Part of the blame is on Walton and yes youth is an issue. I would consider these growing pains for both parties. The problem is correcting the issue.

 

I'm on my phone,and want to address a few of the points made here, but I don't have much time, so here's two:

The team was much better defensively for the first 10 or so games. That indicates a few things to me, that I also confirmed by watching the games. One, we were giving a lot more effort on defense, and as the season moved along, we started to get lazy in our communication, and effort. Two, Luke's defensive philosophy does work when players are giving it their all and it's fresh in their minds from the pre season. Three, our defense is so terrible right now because players are falling back into old habits.. this all points to what we expected at the beginning of the season. Changing and developing a culture takes time. It will take a year or two of playing together for players to make that effort the standard they hold.

Also, I think we have expectations that our path to becoming a good team should look a certain way, and I'm not sure we can expect a trajectory similar to a championship team like Golden State. Most team's make incriminate creeps as their draft picks develop and if they don't get LaBron in free agency. I think it's much more likely our path looks more like Utah and we just make little improvements year after year until our players develop and our team defensive culture develops

 

Surprisingly good writeup. I don't think much of Soriano's work generally.

Wonder if Black tends to anchor the defense when teams go smaller. Wonder if smaller players struggle to finish at the rim. If so, that might be the entire difference between Moz's and Black's numbers.