Los Angeles Lakers: Luke Walton’s relationship with Magic Johnson has been good!

The relationship between Los Angeles Lakers head coach, Luke Walton, and president of basketball operations, Magic Johnson, is one that will be tested in the coming weeks.

It has taken me about a half a season to see that Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton is in a tough situation right now.

It’s one thing to be the Head Coach of one of the two most iconic franchises (Boston being the other) in the NBA. But to have your job turned upside down with the signing of LeBron James and have to deal with the distractions and the various dynamics that come with it, I get it. It took me a while, but I get it.

Even though I’m not the biggest fan of Luke Walton, I’ll admit it. He is really getting a raw deal and his situation right now is unfair.

Even though Luke Walton has done a good job under these circumstances and seems cool, he has to be going through it. Fans on social media call for his job after every single loss. Nothing was more evident of that fact when the Lakers lost at home to the lowly New York Knicks. Boy let me tell you about the stuff on social media after the Cleveland loss, it wasn’t pretty.

More from Lake Show Life

• Darvin Ham adds to Max Christie hype train after Lakers preseason opener
• Is LeBron James playing tonight? Latest Lakers vs Warriors update
• Can Darvin Ham put all of the Lakers puzzle pieces together?
• Lakers news: Darvin Ham knows his fifth starter, LeBron James and Rui Hachimura, Jalen Hood-Schifino praise
• Michael Malone’s painfully ironic comment has Lakers fans heated

How strongly do the Lakers fans feel about a coaching change??

An article I wrote about Luke Walton’s security when the Lakers were mired in a 2-5 slump to start the season gets more buzz now than it did when I wrote it.

I think most Lakers fans forget that Walton was brought in for a different mission than what has been put in front him now. He was to develop the young players and prepare for the future because his former bosses, Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak couldn’t get a free agent to pick up the phone much less play for this team.

Then, Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka take over and changed the business plan for the franchise and brought in the biggest asset in professional sports to play for the Lakers. They have a plan and if you pay attention to what has happened to Walton over the last few months, you’ll realize that Walton just is not part of it.

Too many leaks and reports say otherwise.

I mean why would he have to even entertain this conversation with Sam Amick of the Athletic. 

"“It’s been good,” he said of the relationship with Magic. “Honestly, it has. …Anytime I call him, he calls back within an hour or two, and we talk hoops. He wants to win, and I want to win. So as far as that (goes), we’re all trying to do the same thing, and I don’t feel like he’s trying to move me out of there. “We definitely talked about (the Oct. 30 meeting). Me and him, one on one. We one hundred percent have moved forward from it. I don’t think it has changed anything. We still – it’s still the ultimate goal, and there’s time when I’ll call him or go sit in his office and pick his brain on what he’s seeing and what kind of suggestions he might have. But there’s no – what’s the word – discomfort. I don’t walk in there, and it’s like ‘F***, I’ve got to go talk to Magic.’ Like, I have no problem going in and sitting down with him and talking about what’s going on without thinking about that at all.”"

I’m not here to discredit what Luke Walton says. If this happened…it happened. But what was the man supposed to say? What job do you know where you can blast your supervisor while things are not going well at the time? LeBron James pulls a groin muscle on Christmas day, Rajon Rondo injures a finger and has surgery and SURPRISE! The Lakers are in a 3-7 hole with a murderer’s row schedule coming later on this week.

The Los Angeles Lakers currently sit in the 8th seed in the wild, wild Western Conference. The interesting thing is the precarious position they are in. The Lakers are 3.5 games behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for the third seed.

AND…

The Lakers are 3.5 games ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies, who are 14th in the conference standings ahead of the Suns.

Let’s take a speculative look inside of Luke Walton head dealing with these challenges.

Magic Johnson hasn’t hidden the fact that he doesn’t want him long-term!

The early season meeting with Magic Johnson was not the reason why I thought Luke Walton was in trouble. The fact that it got leaked out and was made to be a huge story was.

Meetings between coaches and the front office happen all the time. Are they always calm and laid back? No. But it is rarely given the attention that this meeting received.

Magic Johnson did come out and guarantee that Luke Walton’s job was safe for the rest of the season…

This is what they call in the sports world a vote of confidence. This is not a ringing endorsement of Luke Walton’s future with the franchise.

What makes this scenario worse in anyone’s mind when you hear on ESPN the possible reason of why he may still be around according to Adrian Wojnarowski on the “Woj and Lowe” special a while back…

"”Since Magic has taken over, they had been hoping to get their own coach in at some point. We saw it play out in the meeting they had earlier in the year where Magic really went after Luke,” Wojnarowski said. “If they’re going to be able to go to Jeanie Buss and sell her on replacing Luke Walton, they better be trying to do it off a season where they missed the playoffs or off of a long losing streak. Because she has been fiercely loyal to Luke Walton. “That was her hire in every way, and so far she has kept management off of him. They’ve allowed Magic and Rob Pelinka to change everything there, they haven’t been able to touch Luke Walton.”"

This is a possible conflict of interest here in the front office that I am very high on.  Walton has a very important ally in his corner when it comes to his security. This leads to a problem that could hurt the Lakers season here.

Jeanie Buss is loyal to a coach that the front office team, who has done an extensive reconstruction of the franchise in Rob Pelinka and Magic Johnson, does not want.

Magic Johnson wants a coach with a personality different from Walton’s! 

I know fans like to distance the sports world from reality, but to grasp this concept one has to add two things to the mix.

Number one, we are dealing with human beings that make decisions that will always differ.

Number two, the Lakers are here to entertain the fans on the Staples Center basketball court but let’s be clear this is a business. This is about money. If that wasn’t the case, the games would be out at the parks and YMCA’s all over Los Angeles for free.

What keeps Luke Walton’s future so murky is the common business practice of when a new regime comes into front office management, they want their own people in positions where they feel comfortable in going in a particular direction.

Luke Walton was going to be safe last year because the front office was dealing with the difficult task of shedding bad contracts to be able to sign LeBron James this offseason while creating flexibility for a second superstar or to make other moves.

Now that task is done…the next task is getting the coach they want to lead the roster they constructed is next.

Adrian Wojnarowski illustrates what type of coach Magic Johnson wants.

"”Magic’s view of a coach remains Pat Riley. The fiery, old-school (guy). That’s his view. Luke Walton doesn’t fit the mold of what he sees in a head coach.”"

Look, you cannot in any way disagree with Magic Johnson’s vision. Pat Riley is a basketball lifer being a former Lakers player and the director of Showtime as the Head Coach. Plus the two have a very close relationship that transcends past basketball. The level of respect between these two is admirable.

However, a fiery coach may not be what the Lakers need at this point.

Let’s look back about a week to another “fiery” coach in Tom Thibodeau.

One of the many things that got him fired was his inability to reach the young players in Andrew Wiggins and Karl Anthony Towns. Many questioned the decision of replacing Thibodeau with Ryan Saunders, but Minnesota has won two straight games since. He seems to reach Wiggins and Towns and it shows in their play.

The Lakers players like Walton’s demeanor which is chill and laid back.

Lonzo Ball talks about it to Sam Amick of the Athletic.

"“He’s a very, very chill coach, you know what I mean?” Ball would later tell me. “He kind of gives players the freedom to do what they want to do. And this year, we’ve just got a lot of new players, obviously, and my role changed, and I’m fine with that. I just want to do what I can to help (them) win, and I think Luke wants the same.“(But) that comment challenged us. And we’ve been playing better ever since, so obviously he made the right choice.”"

It seems that the Minnesota Timberwolves game a few games back will define the coaching situation going forward. Luke Walton called out Ball and Brandon Ingram about lacking “passion and fire” after this game.

The message was received. Both played very well in the game against Dallas.

Not only does he have the young players support, but it also seems the veterans respect him too.

Luke Walton has seemingly the right mix in the locker room!

What makes Luke Walton’s job so difficult is the roster that was put together by the Lakers front office. Magic Johnson brought in numerous veteran free agents on one-year deals.

To put this in perspective here’s how difficult a situation Luke Walton is in.

NBA players that are playing on a one year deal are playing for their next contract. This is a difficult circumstance on a veteran team much less a team where the vision going forward is to give young players the majority of the minutes. The veterans have to sacrifice minutes (and potential money down the line!) for the bigger picture.

Tyson Chandler broke this down to Allen Sliwa on “Lakers Talk” on ESPN Radio.

"”I think he’s doing a great job… (His job is) very difficult. Him and ‘Bron are the same draft class, I was before both of them. When you have that being the case, and you have a guy that thinks the game the way he does in LeBron, that’s not easy. It’s not easy to coach, it’s not easy to lead in that case, because he’s so smart, he’s so intelligent, he’s so good. “The great thing and the balance is — and I think that’s what Luke is figuring out, I think he’s doing a great job — is you know when to push and when to step back and let players just be great. I think he’s done an excellent job with that balance. “He’s also given us vets a huge voice in the locker room. I think he respects what we bring to the table and he picks our brains. It’s just about that balance and I think he’s done a great job of pushing when he needs to push, and then stepping back.”"

This is a glowing endorsement from Tyson Chandler. Plus, it carries a lot of weight considering that his signing, in my opinion, saved the Lakers season and Luke Walton’s job. As for the proper balance that Luke Walton has to navigate, that will come with time. The $64.00 question is…will the front office give him that time? Who knows.

You know, it is interesting that LeBron James’ name came up. Let’s talk about that dynamic shall we?

Does LeBron James trust Luke Walton going forward?

Before Tyson Chandler was bought out of his contract in Phoenix and fell into the laps of the Lakers, the offensive game plan was very different from what we see now. Magic Johnson had a clear plan of the positionless basketball the team was to implement.

"“We’re going to run,” Johnson said. “Whoever gets it, we’re gone. … We’ve got a number of ball handlers, that’s how we built this team. We won’t rely just on LeBron making all the shots for people — in terms of creating the shots for people or himself. We want him also to play off of it, but that’s on Luke. I’m not here to tell you how the offense is going to go because that’s not my job and that’s not Rob’s job. Luke will handle that situation and he’s already been thinking about ways and utilizing not just LeBron but everybody.”"

Part of this plan was that LeBron James was going to play off the ball. It didn’t take long for that plan to be scrapped.

It is important to remember how this team was supposed to be constructed. The plan was for LeBron James to go down to the post and allow the playmakers that were acquired to handle the ball and take some of the responsibility from James.

How long did James go along with this plan? Not long…about say four games?

LeBron James never wanted to play the four or the five and his defense has been taking a nosedive for years. He wants the ball in his hands and he will play the position that is comfortable for him which is the wing.

Then this happened.

Lakers Rumors: LeBron James ignoring calls from the sideline

The Lakers rumors have been in effect since Magic Johnson signed LeBron James in the offseason. Lakers rumors used to be about players. This one's different

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst had this to say about LeBron James’ tendencies.

"The scouts also have noticed that when James is running the point, he rarely looks toward the bench to receive playcalls from coach Luke Walton. Even when he has seen them, the scouts say, he ignores them and runs the play he prefers. Walton has adjusted, and now when James is running the show, Walton will typically just let him call the game. This probably shouldn’t be considered a slight — it’s just James being James."

Again, this story blew up in the media. For the second time this season, Magic Johnson had to make a statement on Lakers matters.

Based on what we have seen offensively since Christmas, we can all safely agree that LeBron James may have known back then what is plainly evident now. Boy, this offensive scheme is not the best in the NBA. In fact, right now it’s the worst. DEAD LAST! 30th in the rankings!

But if you think LeBron James will put up with this for the second half of the season, let me remind you.

The Los Angeles Lakers are going to have to make a decision!

No not the statement to the media. A real decision on the direction of this franchise. This is going to fall on the Lakers front office. There is a real disconnect between ownership and the front office. It may not be intentional, but it is there.

Magic Johnson has made it clear that he wants his own coach. Jeanie Buss wants Luke Walton. Something has got to give. For these reasons.

One, you have to know that the players notice and they will play on it. Sure, the players love him. He’s definitely a players coach. But does he strike fear in anybody? He may know the game and can send a message, but can he get the message across?

Two, this is wearing on Luke Walton. If he can demand fire and passion from Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram, where’s his? Players take on the identity of the coach. Think the Spurs have that problem? The Sixers? I could go on.

For the record, I am not a fan of Luke Walton. I think he is a good coach, just not in these types of circumstances and not for this team the way it is constructed. But for right now who is? That’s another issue altogether.

With a horrid loss at home to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Lakers are close to hitting rock bottom.

The question is…

Will a decision be made to stop the freefall? Then the question is…

Who will make it…Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka or Jeanie Buss?