Catching heat with the 2-5 Lakers
Rogers column: Firing Walton would be mistake
LOS ANGELES – Luke Walton, according to the cunning brain trust of the Las Vegas sports books, was the NBA head coach most likely to earn the ignominious distinction of being fired first this season.
Sin City-bound gamblers can do what they like with their own money, but this was a bad bet all-round. It turned out to be a losing prospect, with Ty Lue’s dismissal from the Cavaliers being the NBA campaign’s first axing.
As for the Lakers, getting rid of Walton would be a seriously bad move, too.
Defeat in Minnesota on Monday night to a Timberwolves team inspired by a fired-up Jimmy Butler prompted a couple of immediate responses.
First, LeBron James allowed his simmering frustration to manifest in public comment, with the Lakers’ leading man strongly indicating that he’s getting sick of losing as his patience drips steadily away.
Secondly, the grumblings of discontent among the Lakerland fan base became more pronounced, with Walton being inevitably labeled as a part of the problem.
Such thinking is shortsighted, premature and intrinsically flawed. Walton is not blameless in the team’s 2-5 start, which has wobbled along amid a catalog of defensive woes. No one escapes culpability — not James, not the squad’s veteran additions and not its impetuous but talented youngsters.
But pulling an early trigger on Walton is not the answer either, not even in this win-now era when coaches are kept on the shortest of leashes.
Lue, James’ former coach, saw his time in Cleveland cut short after the LeBron-less went 0-for-6 the first two weeks of the season, prompting a message of support from his ex-star player.
Drafting in Lue or another replace- ment in Los Angeles would be a leap into the unknown, just like it is for Walton.
While the identity, blueprint and personality of the coach is of critical importance in any NBA situation, the waters get muddied in this case. The Lakers of 2018-19 are a fiendishly difficult team to coach, given that it is an incongruous mash-up of three core components — the biggest star in the sport, a freshfaced bunch of energetic but inconsistent kids and some old guys brought in to ostensibly steady the ship. The King, Lonzo’s Lads and Rondo’s Relics.
It sure needs some steadying right now, however. Just as Walton was not the fountain of all basketball wisdom when he led a ludicrously stacked Golden State to 39-4 in Steve Kerr’s absence three years back, neither is he a clueless amateur right now.
Presently, the Lakers can’t shoot or defend well enough to be competitive in the Western Conference, but while field goal accuracy might be a personnel problem, the defensive system needs time to click.
James seems willing to give Walton some leeway, having focused his calls for improvement solely around the playing staff, instead of offering the kind of subtle hints of dissatisfaction that David Blatt felt the brunt of in Cleveland.
Walton wasn’t a Magic Johnson hire, but Johnson seems to have his back too, for now, and the fans will at least be pacified in part because the new-look Lakers, with a frenetic up-tempo pace, are darned fun to watch, even in defeat.
If Lonzo Ball can get his mind in the game for longer than fleeting flashes, Kyle Kuzma can continue to develop, Brandon Ingram can employ smarter ball movement and Josh Hart’s experience can catch up with his energy, the Lakers could really get somewhere.
Those are big “ifs,” but not unthinkable outcomes a couple of months from now, either.
Bear in mind though, that this is the Lakers and this is the world of LeBron, where everything gets magnified and scrutinized, even more so with every passing defeat. Walton deserves the chance to get things into shape, but each setback will only bring more questions. Too many, and the primary question becomes “how long has he got?” which not even the Vegas sports books has the true answer to.