Luke Walton is the new coach for the Lakers and I’m a firm believer that he can help the team in more ways than just his coaching. Not only will he be good for the young guys on the team and help them develop, but he’ll be good for the organization itself. Lakers fans know that Byron Scott took a lot of blame for last season, and I even blamed him a lot at times. His coaching record was never extraordinary. Now they have a coach coming from an organization that went to the finals the past two seasons.
We saw what Luke could do in the semi-absence of Steve Kerr, and I say this because he was there but just wasn’t the coach at the games due to his health at the time. Walton stepped up to the challenge and made enough in-game decisions to show he could be an effective coach. The Warriors had a historic regular season and came very close to capping it off in the playoffs. I think Luke’s success there will be more appealing to free agents and players who may be traded to the Lakers in the near future (hint hint).
I was weary at first when I heard Luke Walton was hired since I wasn’t entirely sure he was ready. After seeing him attend the summer league games and some practices (via the internet and not in person, of course), I believe he’s extremely dedicated to this team. It takes a lot to leave an excellent team for one that, well, hasn’t been excellent for a handful of years now.
Luke can be the game changer for the Lakers. They have the young talent on the court and have a coach that everyone seems to love. If Walton becomes the new face of the Lakers organization, I’d be fine with that.
I’ve blamed Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak for a lot of what has transpired the last few years with the number of coaches the team has cycled through and the trade decisions that ended up less than ideal. For the sake of the fans and the organization, we need Luke to be everything I’ve just mentioned and more to restore some faith in this team. I do think he’s the person that can do that and I really hope I’m not wrong about it.
