Luke Walton has agreed to become the next Lakers coach

Exactly. The problem the Rox face is that Alexander skews toward "names, guys who fit his ideas about making a big splash.

The problem with that is you will miss that gem of a coach who can pair Xs and Os with understanding chemistry.

 

Getting all the praise for the Warriors job around here, and now built-in excuses for the Lakers.

Teflon Don status achieved.

 

BWHAHAHA! This..

Throw max money at DeRozen, Barnes or Batum and then massively over pay for a center like Biyombo..... By the time those contracts or up Walton and Jackson can talk about how they stole money from Buss and Dolan and Kobe will be ready to run the Lakers into the ground.

 

They should give him a 10 year contract!!

Rocket River

 

Can't wait to go back and find all of these posts when Harden leaves us high and dry to go home to LA. Bless your hearts if you think Harden has any loyalty to our city and team. 2 seasons left. Can you win a championship before he becomes an UFA? Good luck if you think we can. If he can't recruit Durant to Houston, He's a goner in 2018.

 

Yeah, that's awesome. We can also point to failed player prospects and trade away all our draft picks.

Steve Kerr was a prospect. Popovich was too. Every great coach, by definition, was unproven at one time. I'd rather try to find the next good/great coach than try to keep recycling guys who never proved to be great.

I wouldn't hate Van Gundy, but I think a major part of his appeal is nostalgia. He was a good, not great, coach who's been out of the profession for nearly a decade.

 

How many years does he have . . . to prove he is a good coach?
What are the benchmarks?

Can he have the Lakers in the Top 4 of the West in 3 Years?
Is that asking too much?
The Mark Jackson barometer?
w - l
23 - 43
47 - 35
51 - 31

Have the Lakers as a 50 win team in 3 years?


Rocket River

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Luke Walton's contract to coach the Lakers will be for five years and about $25 million.</p>&mdash; Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mike_Bresnahan/status/726506859234906112">April 30, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

McHale was an interim in Minny before he took on our job. Luke Walton was an assistant pushed up to be interim, similar to JBB. The difference is, Luke inherited the best team in the world. JB inherited one of the most dysfunctional teams in the league.

Not saying that Luke Walton is not better than McHale and Bickerstaff. Just saying that Morey was trying to "get a gem prospect" when he hired McHale, and it didn't work out very well.

 

Damn Luke is just 36 years old and is a headcoach now... Hell Tim Duncan is 40 and still playing

 

<iframe width="500" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DG-kGMgXMI0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

That's the difference between a scrub and an all-time great player. :grin:

 

So I'm going to coin the phrase Russel / Simmons Def Basketball Jam before someone else does it. The Lakers announcers can thank me anytime Russel throws an ally-oop to Simmons.

 

thanks for posting that. Seems like a real straight shooter, I think he's going to do well in L.A.

 

You really believe that? To me it looked like it was all Leslie & Morey looking for a name and someone willing to listen.

 

With Kobe retired,the Lakers can actually focus on developing players and the future of this once great franchise which has become a joke.

 

This is going to be interesting because it could be that there are FA's who are interested in playing in LA and being coached by Walton, the head assistant of Steve Kerr and the Warriors.

 

I agree that the main reason for them to hire McHale was the big name. But I do believe that Morey at least saw some potential in McHale to develop into a "good" coach, at least "good" in the sense of being able to implement his vision of how the team would play.

 

I heard an audio clip of Steve Kerr this morning about Walton going to LA. He said something to the effect of "Good luck coaching without (first names of who I assume are the three best players on their team).

There was a little edge to the tone, kind of flippant, like fine, leave, whatever. Must not be happy, about the timing, or at all about it. But they didn't play the whole clip.

 

If he was unhappy, why would they let him interview with teams in the first place while they were still playing in the playoffs?