Warriors look golden with Walton
At 15-0, interim coach has Golden State one win away from NBA record. Host Lakers tonight
“The experience has been incredible. I wanted to (coach), and this has ... reinforced that.”
Luke Walton, Warriors assistant coach who is serving as interim head coach
Luke Walton knew he wanted to coach basketball for a living before these last four weeks.
So yes, with the Golden State Warriors interim coach having steered this seemingly unwreckable ship to a 15-0 start that has the defending champions one win from an NBA record, the profession looks promising.
“The experience has been incredible,” said Walton, a 35-year-old assistant who was chosen by Steve Kerr to take over while he recovers from spinal fluid leaks suffered during offseason back surgery. “I wanted to (coach), and this has just kind of reinforced that even more. Now it’s, ‘ Oh yeah, 100%, I love doing this.’ ”
Who would have thought that Walton, son of Hall of Famer Bill Walton and a two-time champion as a player with Phil Jackson’s Los Angeles Lakers, could take these already-dominant Warriors to the next level while they waited for their head coach to return? Golden State, which is not only winning but winning by a huge margin most nights (a league-best +14.4 point differential) has a chance to set the mark for best-ever start Tuesday at Oracle Arena against the Lakers.
As new coaching gigs go, the rule of thumb for up-and-comers who want to shine is to land a job with a
team that has nowhere to go but up. In that sense, it doesn’t get much worse than taking over a championship squad that not only won 67 games the previous regular season but also had the eighth-best point differential (+10.1) all time. What’s more, even the impeccable record doesn’t go on his official résumé. Per league rules, Kerr receives the coaching credit for the wins.
“I keep referring to (John) Wooden’s quote, ‘It’s amazing what you can accomplish when no one cares who gets the credit,’ ” Warriors general manager and former UCLA player Bob Myers said. “Luke’s not walking around like he’s the man. He’s just happy that our team’s doing well, and Steve’s happy that the team’s doing well. We just want to win.”
Truth be told, Walton would be the first to admit he’s lucky to get this chance.
He’s four years removed from his first coaching job, an assistant at the University of Memphis that he took on as a way to learn the craft during the NBA lockout. From there, he became a player development coach for the Lakers’ D-League team, the Los Angeles Defenders, before joining Kerr with the Warriors two summers ago.
He was a natural fit as Kerr’s assistant: Like Kerr, he attended the University of Arizona; like Kerr, he grew up in Southern California and was known as a smart, inclusive, easy-going-yet-competitive type; like Kerr, he paid close attention to Jackson’s teachings during their title-winning time together. And Walton’s ability to make this all look easy is inevitably making Kerr look all the wiser for choosing him as the temporary replacement.
Had Alvin Gentry remained, he would have been given this task. But the ex-Warriors associate head coach became New Orleans Pelicans head coach over the offseason, so Kerr had to choose, in essence, between an inexperienced Walton (one season as an NBA assistant) and 68-year-old defensive guru Ron Adams (nearly a quarter century on NBA benches and widely seen as one of the best in the business).
As Myers noted, it’s hard to argue with the results. Not only has Golden State’s defense remained elite (the Warriors are ranked fifth after being tops in the league last season), but their offense is far and away the best in the league (111.8 points scored per 100 possessions, with the Oklahoma City Thunder second at 107.5). And Walton’s ability to keep the same likable, approachable persona has helped maintain his rapport with the players.
“You never know how certain coaches would act with this opportunity, whether they felt like they were out there showing out for another job or auditioning or whatever and change their personality or their mannerisms just because they have the new platform,” Warriors star Stephen Curry said. “Luke has done it in his way, where he’s the same guy, who’s just more vocal, making calls and having faith in us, as players, to go out there and do it. And we have faith in him to make those right calls, and we have to go out there and execute. It’s been fun.”