Lakers: 5 Reasons Luke Walton Is the Right Head Coach

5. Experience in Winning Culture

When you look at the Lakers roster and the young core that they have to likely build around for the future of the organization, one of the things that is glaring about them is that none of them know what a functional and successful culture in the NBA looks like. Larry Nance Jr. and D’Angelo Russell’s one year with the team was tumultuous to say the least, the same of which can be said about Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson’s two seasons as part of the organization.

Contrarily, Walton will be coming from a team in the Warriors where the culture and environment around the team is based in historic levels of success. They are a team that thrives off one another, handles adversity in stride, and simply gets stronger as the days and hardships pile up in front of them. That’s invaluable experience that Walton can bring to this young Lakers team.

Even more in favor of Walton in this regard is that he was a player at the time when the Lakers transitioned from the doldrums of the mid-2000s into the titles with Kobe and Pau Gasol. As such, he’s seen in Los Angeles what a culture shift from a bad team to a championship team looks like. Bringing that in as a head coach will be huge.

Next: No. 4 Allowing Creativity