Los Angeles Lakers: 3 people not named Luke Walton responsible for slow start
By Ronald Agers
There have been plenty of Los Angeles Lakers rumors recently surrounding Luke Walton. If he is not to blame for the struggles, then who is?
Let the Los Angeles Lakers rumors begin! I mean, did anyone think that this Lakers season would be without a little Hollywood drama after LeBron James left Cleveland (…again) to take his talents to the west coast?
The gauge of the Lakers success varied from the team going to the Western Conference Finals (Not me folks…that was Stephen A. Smith) to the team struggling with a chance to miss the playoffs altogether.
Well, the Lakers coming out slow this season at 5-6, the supposed words of comfort like patience, positionless basketball and playmakers have been replaced with…drama, defensive lapses, inconsistency and frustrations. Only now it seems that frustration has let out for the world to see.
Last week, it was reported on numerous outlets that Magic Johnson chided Luke Walton for the lack of identity of the team on both ends among other things…
According to Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times…
"Johnson, president of basketball operations, shouted and cursed at Walton, according to multiple sources who weren’t authorized to speak publicly. He asked Walton what he was doing with the team, wanting to see an offensive system in place that had yet to be implemented. At one point he chided Walton for interrupting him."
How about ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith’s take on all these Los Angeles Lakers rumors via NBC Sports…
"Magic Johnson is not satisfied with how they look defensively, and he thinks that Luke Walton needs a better coaching staff. Now, he’s not going to say that publicly, but I’m telling you what I know. Clearly, if Magic Johnson is telling you he wants a more-experienced staff, that’s a hint that you might need to take heed to and do it if you like coaching the Los Angeles Lakers."
So, according to these two quotes, Magic Johnson has a problem with the Lakers offense, defense and even the assistant coaches. Outside of hot dog sales and the beer, Magic Johnson just is not happy these days.
No matter what is being said about Luke Walton being safe, knowing the competitiveness of Magic Johnson and familiarity of being in the win column of LeBron James, I don’t believe this can go on.
I laid it out in full in this piece…
The one thing that cannot be argued is this…
We can all agree that Magic Johnson, Rob Pelinka and Jeanie Buss are not going anywhere. Ms. Buss happens to run the team and Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka have done more in 18 months than the previous regime did in five years.
Two, it’s a known fact that the players can’t be fired as well. This is a numbers game here folks. This roster was put together by Magic Johnson so they have some leeway. The only person that has to take the fall here is Walton.
But is Luke Walton TOTALLY to blame here? There are so many bad factors that caused this imperfect storm.
Let’s take a look at if there are any others that should take the blame…