5 Reasons Luke Walton Should Be Lakers’ Next Head Coach
November 24, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors interim head coach Luke Walton (left) talks to Los Angeles Lakers forward Kobe Bryant (24, right) after the game at Oracle Arena. The Warriors defeated the Lakers 111-77. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Whatever it takes, the Lakers need to make Luke Walton the next head coach
The Los Angeles Lakers almost surely aren’t going to fire head coach Byron Scott before the end of the 2015-16 season. That’s incredibly unfortunate considering that, by the calculations of multiple factions of Lakers fans, Scott has been deserving of a firing for quite some time. However, all signs point to him sticking around for the remainder of the season.
However, that might not actually be the worst thing for the future of the franchise—as crazy as that may sound considering all of the negative things that Scott has done for this team. While the remainder of the 2015-16 season could be grueling for fans to suffer through, the end result of waiting out Scott until the end of this season could very well be the Lakers having the chance to hire the coach that would save the franchise and usher them into the future: Luke Walton.
Walton is currently serving as the interim head coach of the defending champion Golden State Warriors. You may have heard that they’ve had an okay start to the 2015-16 season. While the infrastructure for the Warriors was set into place by Steve Kerr last season, Walton has only run with it and helped coach Golden State to levels of success legitimately never seen before in the NBA.
With Kerr returning sometime in the future and the job almost surely still being his with the Warriors, Walton is going to be one of the hottest head-coaching candidates out there. Considering that Walton is a former Lakers player and what he could mean for the development of players like D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, and others, the Lakers would be foolish to not hire the 35-year-old.
Not that it takes much convincing to say that someone not named Byron Scott should be head coach in Los Angeles, here are five reasons why Walton is the perfect man to take the helm of the Lakers and lead them to success with this young core of players in a post Kobe Byrant era.
Next: No. 5 The Ties That Bind