It is finally time to ignore LaVar Ball’s ineptitude, and Los Angeles Lakers Nation needs to stop calling out Luke Walton for losing streaks.
To simply place all the burden on a head coach, such as Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton, is common in sports. Sure, Walton created interesting rotations (and lineups) many times in the season. Just blaming him for every single loss is blatant and unnerving, but that is what every head coach signed up for.
Luke Walton began his coaching career with multiple D-League teams. Steve Kerr added him to his coaching staff once he was hired in 2015. Luke commented that he would “run parts of the triangle offense along with Kerr.”
Walton ran away with a dream season in 2015, ending with a 67-15 record and a championship. During Kerr’s rehabilitation period to improve his back, Walton ran as the interim. His Warriors ran a 24-0 start with a 39-4 record before Kerr returned.
The 73-9 season was spoiled by an angry LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers, infamously coming back from a 3-1 lead to give Cleveland its first championship.
That made Walton an immediate match for the Lakers, but the man who has been at the helm for two-and-a-half years now is under an inferno for essentially everything that he has done wrong.
In fact, former Memphis Grizzlies head coach David Fizdale could be a candidate were Magic Johnson to fire Walton, per Corey Hansford of LakersNation. There should not be a rush to get Walton out so quickly.