Lakers: 5 Reasons Luke Walton Is the Right Head Coach

2. Accountability of Coach

Perhaps the single most frustrating part about Scott’s tenure as the head coach of the Lakers was how he would deal with adversity as the leader of the team. Whenever the play on the court was sloppy, apathetic, or just downright bad, Scott would come up with a variety of excuses as to why that was the case. That’s where the litany of “Byronisms” ultimately came from as instead of specifically identifying issues or taking the blame upon himself for not coaching the team properly at any point, he would instead talk about “manning up” and whatever else like that.

Though there were only 43 games where Walton was the interim head coach of the Warriors and though he only suffered a loss in four of those 43 games (that Golden State team was alright, eh?), it was truly remarkable how much professionalism an assistant/interim coach in his mid-30s handled himself with. If it was a coaching mistake that cost the Warriors, he owned up to it. If there was something wrong, he specifically made note of it and addressed how to remedy the problem.

Handling head coaching responsibilities in such a manner, especially when dealing with a young team that’s going to make plenty of mistakes and still needs to build confidence, is imperative if a team is going to become a success in the NBA. Therefore, seeing that Luke Walton brings that to the table is more than encouraging.

Next: No. 1 Optimism