Luke Walton Returns To Los Angeles Lakers As New Head Coach
The Los Angeles Lakers appointed their next head coach in former Lakers player and Golden State Warriors assistant coach Luke Walton.
The Los Angeles Lakers head coaching search was over as quickly as it began and — in a very un-Laker way — occurred in very anticlimactic fashion.
Five days after the team announced the end of the Byron Scott era in Los Angeles, they appointed a new leader for the next generation of Lakers. While Mitch Kupchak and company basically had their pick of veteran head coaches and assistant coaches alike, they chose a relatively young but promising coach for the job because of his familiarity with the organization and his experience with championship-level organizations.
Lakers fans, allow me to re-introduce you to your newest head coach — Golden State Warriors assistant head coach Luke Walton.
Walton has been arguably the hottest coach on the market due to his brief tenure as the interim head coach of the league’s hottest team at the start of this season. In Coach of the Year Steve Kerr‘s absence, Walton was a solid leader in his own right, coaching the reigning champion Golden State Warriors to a sensational 39-4 start and effectively putting the team on pace to have a record-breaking 73-9 season.
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Since then, multiple teams with coaching vacancies have had Walton at the top of their wish list, including the New York Knicks and Houston Rockets. However, the speculation from many was that the only job that could lure Walton away from the phenomenal success he’s a part of San Francisco would be the Lakers’ head coaching gig.
In this hire, the ideal scenario plays out for both parties.
Walton gets to start his head coaching career with a talented young team that holds several similarities to the Warriors team he’s leaving. The Lakers, too, are built around a sharpshooting point guard with star potential, a solid 2-guard with two-way potential and an athletic, bruising hybrid forward.
In this instance, Walton’s experience with the championship trio of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green proves especially beneficial for this young Lakers team. Walton also inherits a team with solid role players in Larry Nance Jr., Lou Williams, Marcelo Huertas and Tarik Black, all with the potential to form a bench as solid as that of the Warriors.
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From the Lakers’ perspective, the franchise is getting a head coach who, while incredibly young, has gained tons of championship experience in his professional basketball career. Walton was a member of the Lakers teams that repeated as champions in 2009 and 2010 under the tutelage of the Zen Master Phil Jackson, in addition to being a significant contributor from the coach’s seat on another potential repeat champion with Golden State.
The invaluable knowledge he’s gained from legendary coaches like Jackson and Kerr is a major reason why Walton was so highly coveted by many, especially in Los Angeles. This team and its fanbase have championship expectations and, in Walton, they net a head coach who can relate to the team’s young stars while establishing a championship culture much like the ones he’s been fortunate to be a part of over the course of his career.
In addition, Walton’s championship accumen and his association with the league’s best team could be a positive recruiting tool for the Lakers as they look to lure top-tier free agents to Los Angeles — a feat that will be much easier with a coach that has clout due to success and tutelage from the league’s best head coaches.
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On day one, this hire looks like a solid match and one that could get this Lakers team trending back towards success on the court sooner rather than later.