The idea that Luke Walton would become the next head coach of the L.A. Lakers has been an obvious one for months. Walton’s ties to Southern California are deep, and he spent the majority of his career in forum blue and gold. After whiffing on every post-Phil Jackson hire, the Lakers needed a big splash. Hiring a less-than-marquee name would be met with disappointment from a hungry fan base.
Landing Luke Walton is a good omen for the Lakers’ summer dreams
The fact that the Lakers were able to quickly snag an in-demand coach bodes well for their hopes of snagging in-demand free-agent talent in the future.
After leading the Warriors to the best start in NBA history, Walton is a marquee coach. And let’s be honest about the impact of appearance in this entertainment field: the young and handsome Walton, like Showtime Pat Riley before him, fits as the face of a Hollywood basketball franchise.
Walton to the Lakers was an easy prediction to make, but the Lakers still had to pull it off. And they did, without drama and without delay. That’s a coup for a team for which nothing has been easy for years. It’s an especially big deal given what comes next for the Lakers.
Three years ago, Dwight Howard bolted from the Lakers. The team hasn’t signed a significant free agent since, despite chasing LeBron, Carmelo, LaMarcus Aldridge, Kevin Love, Greg Monroe, DeAndre Jordan and others. At some point, if the Lakers are going to flex their considerable financial power, capitalize on the allure of Los Angeles for young wealthy men and make up for a low talent asset base, the team needs a big free agency win.
That could come in July with DeMar DeRozan, Harrison Barnes or, hell, Kevin Durant. It could come in 2017 with Russell Westbrook or in 2018 with DeMarcus Cousins. But it has to come at some point, or L.A.‘s rebuild is just going to take too damn long for a fan base with high expectations and little familiarity of failure.
Selling Walton on the Lakers was easy, sure, but it was a great test run for July. It showed that with Kobe Bryant gone and some measure of hope ahead, L.A. is attractive as a basketball situation. Coaching free agency obviously works much differently than player free agency. If DeRozan, for example, doesn’t pick L.A. he’s guaranteed to get a similarly massive contract from a number of other teams.
There are few coach openings -- if Walton didn’t take the Lakers gig and didn’t want to head to Sacramento, New York or Houston, he’s out of luck until next summer. But because Walton was so high on target lists, he did have options. And he chose the Lakers. Big-name free agents won’t have the ties to the franchise Walton does, but DeRozan and Westbrook did grow up in L.A. under the shadow of the Shaq-Kobe dynasty and Durant did idolize Bryant as a young player.
Something new that infuses the Lakers' market power is just how incredible a basketball factory the city has become. DeRozan, Westbrook, James Harden, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard hailed from the Southland. Young players like Allen Crabbe, Norman Powell, Stanley Johnson and Delon Wright call SoCal home. Vets like Tyson Chandler, Arron Afflalo, Amir Johnson, Trevor Ariza, Jrue Holiday, Darren Collison, Nick Young and Taj Gibson have roots there.
The two L.A. teams have home court advantages for a bunch of NBA players, many of them good. The Clippers haven’t capitalized on that, Paul Pierce aside. The Lakers might. Walton isn’t an instant cure, but he’s a sign that the Lakers can sell themselves to rich young men with options. That’s huge.
But the next big moment for the franchise is left entirely to chance. On May 17, the Lakers will have a 56 percent shot to win a top-three pick and a 44 percent chance of having no lottery pick at all. If fortune smiles on L.A. on that day as it did on Friday, the Lakers will have another huge arrow in their quiver, one that might help Mitch Kupchak and Walton build a long-term winner down the line, or one that might be leveraged in June or July for instant help.
If Lady Luck gives L.A. the finger ... well, they still have D’Angelo Russell, who ought to be fully unleashed under Walton. At least there’s always D’Angelo. A critical Lakers’ summer is off to a great start. Now we see if that’s a harbinger for success to come.
