Lakers: Luke Walton’s Offense Could Maximize Young Core
Luke Walton bringing the Warriors offense to the Lakers could be the best thing for the young core
Talk about a productive month for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Spirits are high as the Lakers are in the midst of airing out the lingering stench of the last two seasons. In less than 30 days, Mitch Kupchak and the Lakers have booted Byron Scott, hired an inventive young coach in Luke Walton, and retained the second-overall pick in the NBA Draft for second straight year.
Now, as Walton prepares to sift through the rubble of their disastrous last season, Lakers fans have already begun to speculate how the lauded Warriors assistant will try replicate his success in Golden State. He’ll have quite the task in improving the Lakers’ woefully anemic offense, but the key to a quick turnaround could lie within his plan for the team’s most enticing youngster: D’Angelo Russell.
It was Russell’s passing ability that had many clamoring for the Ohio State standout last June, but he rarely had opportunities to utilize his esteemed playmaking ability during his rookie season. The Lakers and their last-ranked offense never found cohesion and their lumbering offensive sets rarely allowed the gifted guard to operate in space.
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Enter Walton, who has already delighted Laker fans by revealing his plans to use a version of the Warrior’s record-breaking offense created by Steve Kerr.
Of course, much of the Warriors’ success should be attributed to Stephen Curry’s ethereal shooting touch and Draymond Green’s limitless versatility. But it would be foolish to dismiss what Kerr has created on the offensive end as well.
After enduring two years of Scott’s excruciatingly dull Princeton offense, the young core of Russell, Julius Randle, and Jordan Clarkson are surely ecstatic to transition to Walton’s iteration of the motion-based system that has helped launch a once-middling Golden State team to superstardom. Add the Lakers’ recently secured No. 2 overall pick and you’ve got a malleable young roster teeming with potential.
Nonetheless, Walton is a young, inexperienced hire who will start his first head coaching job with one of the most unenviable tasks in recent memory—rebuilding a 17-win team under the brightest spotlights in basketball. He’ll have to quickly adapt Kerr’s playbook to the unproven Lakers roster and will likely start with the basics: the pick-and-roll.
Next: Breakdown of GSW Pick-and-Roll