The Los Angeles Lakers were eliminated from postseason contention on Friday night after losing to D’Angelo Russell and the Brooklyn Nets. It was the final step in finishing what has been a failure of a season after LeBron James agreed to sign a four-year contract with the franchise.
There are plenty of reasons behind the Lakers’ disappointing year. A significant and unpredictable one has been the myriad injuries affecting the team’s depth and rotations. After the game, James summarized that issue and came to the coaching staff’s defense regarding how they handled the rotations:
LeBron: "It’s just hard for us to have any type of rhythm, any type of camaraderie, and type of chemistry on the floor when Luke has to play with the lineups over and over and over and try to figure out different scenarios on the court to be successful."
— Kyle Goon (@kylegoon) March 23, 2019
"So it’s been challenging for all of us, definitely the coaching staff, just not being able to have our full group every single night."
*This is probably one of the most empathetic quotes LeBron has made all year toward Luke and his coaches.
— Kyle Goon (@kylegoon) March 23, 2019
Most seem to believe that Luke Walton and his staff will be fired after the conclusion of the season. Many also believe that LeBron would be in favor of that, given several reports of his camp wanting to push the third-year coach out.
That’s what makes this quote significant, that James would go out of his way to say that Walton did as well as possible with the cards that he was dealt. To an extent, that’s true. James, Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram played in only 23 games together, during which the team had a 15-8 record. They were on pace for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs before LeBron suffered a strained groin.
At the same time, Walton did not do himself or the team any favors. Some of his rotations and lineup choices have legitimately been eyebrow-raising even with the caveat that he was forced to play net negative players like Rajon Rondo and Lance Stephenson because that’s what he had available.
Regardless of James finally coming to Walton’s defense, it seems pretty likely that the head coach will not make it past the summer.
