Luke Walton

#91
I think that Luke showed again last night that he is more than capable when given a free hand to coach without agenda. Ironically, Dave was, too. The only major difference between Dave and Luke is the office politics. Dave would clash with the FO, and then use individual players as bargaining chips--be it minutes, shots, whatever. Luke, it seems, is coming to many of the same conclusions that Dave did, but Luke is seemingly able to keep the focus on winning and not get into political battles. Who would have thought he could reintegrate Dedmon into the lineup? Anyway, still think Vlade should resign in April, but the new GM should be a veteran basketball ops executive who will be comfortable evaluating Luke on his/her own next season.
 
#92
I think that Luke showed again last night that he is more than capable when given a free hand to coach without agenda. Ironically, Dave was, too. The only major difference between Dave and Luke is the office politics. Dave would clash with the FO, and then use individual players as bargaining chips--be it minutes, shots, whatever. Luke, it seems, is coming to many of the same conclusions that Dave did, but Luke is seemingly able to keep the focus on winning and not get into political battles. Who would have thought he could reintegrate Dedmon into the lineup? Anyway, still think Vlade should resign in April, but the new GM should be a veteran basketball ops executive who will be comfortable evaluating Luke on his/her own next season.
How did one win against a bad Bulls team show that Luke is more than capable?
 
#93
Walton seems to have inherited some traditional values when it comes to bball. John Wooden is my all-time favorite person in sports.

This coach preaches defense, but we saw some disturbing stats during the Bulls game. The Kings are near the last in the league in defense. That surprised me because we have talked about the team's defensive identity, and how they have won games with it. They have also lost plenty of games without it. I see glimpses and good defense with this team and much better helping each other.

This coach is enigmatic to me. I cannot figure him out really. Coach J was more aggressive. He upset people. But he won more games with the same amount of talent.

Walton is one of the only coaches I have seen that can go from one losing franchise to another, and be lauded as a great coach. He comes from basketball royalty or people might not have some much patience with him.
 
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#94
Walton seems to have inherited some traditional values when it comes to bball. John Wooden is my all-time favorite person in sports.

This coach preaches defense, but we saw some disturbing stats during the Bulls game. The Kings are near the last in the league in defense. That surprised me because we have talked about the team's defensive identity, and how they have won games with it. They have also lost plenty of games without it. I see glimpses and good defense with this team and much better helping each other.

This coach is enigmatice to me. I cannot figure him out really. Coach J was more aggressive. He upset people. But he won more games with the same amount of talent.

Walton is one of the only coaches I have seen that can go from one losing franchise to another, and be lauded as a great coach. He comes from basketball royalty or people might not have some much patience with him.
I saw that stat too but I think it’s current. I don’t think we were last defensively the whole season. I wonder if Holmes going out contributed in our drop defensively or other players for that matter.
 
#95
YOu cannot explain away the Kings poor performance on defense for the whole season by the loss of Holmes.
We have been lulled into believing that the Kings' defense has been improving, but it really hasn't.
The Kings are still hapless and somewhat hopeless. It makes no sense that I still like them, but I do.
 
On Simmons’ podcast today, both he and Rusillo were “In” on Luke Walton during an In/Out segment. They had nice things to say in general. Could just be recency bias—they’re both LA based now, and watched the Clippers game. But, I maintain, if you think Luke is a problem you do not fully understand the NBA. Not saying you don’t know basketball, you may well have forgotten more than I’ll ever know, but I think your conceptualization of the NBA is stuck in the 80s, or earlier.