Los Angeles Lakers: 7 takeaways from six-game road trip

1. Luke Walton‘s seat is heating up

This was a tough road trip overall for the Lakers. The person who it may have been toughest on is head coach, Luke Walton.

Walton has backing from owner Jeanie Buss. That is the best ally that Walton could have, but after this road trip, his seat is going to get even hotter.

There have been some things outside of Walton’s control this season to get the team in the position that they are in. Walton can’t control injuries or the construction of the roster. Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka realized the error of their ways in how they built the roster in the offseason and added two shooters at the deadline.

However, Walton does control the lineups and rotations and they were pretty bad at times during this road trip. Against the Hawks, despite Atlanta using John Collins, Dwayne Dedmon and Alex Len, Walton inexplicably went small, using LeBron James and Kyle Kuzma at center. JaVale McGee and Moritz Wagner played only 18 minutes combined.

There has also been very little structure offensively for Los Angeles. They don’t seem to have an offensive system, which was understandable to start the season given how many new faces. To not have something in place now, 55 games into the season, is hard to believe.

Walton cannot be blamed for all of the Lakers woes right now, but he is responsible for some it. There will be plenty of rumors throughout the break as Walton’s seat will be as hot as anyone’s in the league.

Two of the Lakers performances over the trip were unacceptable. Not having the team ready to go falls on Walton, who looks like he will be lucky to make it until the end of the season as the Lakers head coach.