After Lakers president Magic Johnson met with head coach Luke Walton — a meeting that reportedly included shouting, curse words, and pressure to turn an early losing season around — Johnson said he wouldn’t fire the coach he inherited “unless something drastic happened.”
The Lakers need to shake things up, but they don’t have many options
Los Angeles looked awful against Toronto, and it’s clear they need help. But the Lakers are handicapped via trade. Their options are limited.
Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
Los Angeles just had its their most embarrassing loss of the early season. Does that fall under the category of “something drastic?”
The Lakers lost at home to a Raptors team that sat Kawhi Leonard, 121-107, on Sunday night. They trailed, 41-10, in the first quarter and finished the period down 25. It marked both the worst end-of-the-first-quarter deficit in Lakers’ history and a 31-point first-quarter hole that was worse than any other home team in the past 20 years.
LeBron James has risen above winning
Calling LeBron James the best basketball player in the world is both true and insufficient. It’s like referring to Hercules as antiquity’s strongest hero. It’s technically accurate. It checks out. But it wildly understates what defines our protagonist.
Los Angeles could not stop Serge Ibaka, who looked like Kevin Durant after scoring 34 points on 15-of-17 shooting from the field. The Lakers couldn’t stop anyone for that matter: Toronto shot 50 percent from the field and won handily despite a poor three-point shooting night.
When LeBron James signed a four-year deal with in Los Angeles this summer, he knew they were a work in progress, that success wouldn’t come overnight, that they had to build over time to bring a championship to this franchise.
James preached patience. Johnson, in interviews with multiple outlets before Sunday’s game, said Walton would remain the coach all season. Still, you could understand if both men are running out of that patience.
The Lakers are expected to sign veteran center Tyson Chandler after clearing waivers following his buyout with Phoenix. But when James runs out of patience, head coaches get fired and players get traded. If Chandler’s acquisition doesn’t move the needle, both firings and trades will be on the table if the Lakers can’t turn things around.
The Lakers could fire Luke Walton
No, the Lakers should not fire Walton so early into the season, especially after Johnson’s vote of confidence. But how about 15 or 20 games in? If Los Angeles continues this skid, Lucky Luke’s seat will get scorching hot.
It’s a coaching problem when players repeatedly make the same mistakes, and James has a photographic memory. He’ll recall and spit out every play from a game — good or bad.
Remember when David Blatt got fired mid-season? Blatt’s Cavaliers were 30-11 with the best record in the East when that happened, and the Cavaliers still canned him.
Also remember this: Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka didn’t hire Walton, they inherited him from the Jim Buss/Mitch Kupchak regime. Johnson and Pelinka are results-oriented, and if the results don’t show, Lakers brass could start looking at Walton differently.
What could their options be?
- Monty Williams is an NBA head coach who stepped away from the game when his wife tragically passed away in a car accident in 2016. He’s returned and is now an assistant coach in Philly. Williams is well respected and well-regarded all throughout the league. If there were a coaching change made in Los Angeles, expect him to get serious consideration.
- The Cavaliers just fired Tyronn Lue. Lue coached Cleveland to its first-ever championship in 2016, and his relationship with James is undeniable.
- Becky Hammon is budding in San Antonio and is going to be a head coach in the NBA someday. LeBron James was asked about a woman potentially becoming a head coach in the league, and his response was, “If you know the game, you know the game.” Hammon absolutely knows the game of basketball.
- And you can’t forget about Mark Jackson. Jackson is also a Klutch Sports client and has extensive coaching history. He’s been separated from coaching since Steve Kerr got the Warriors job. He could be in play here as much as anyone.
Los Angeles could also just let things ride out, but it’ll be hard for them to do so if the Lakers keep losing. There’s another avenue they can explore, too.
The Lakers could also look for a trade
But their roster makeup makes it hard to find one.
James’ contract accounts for 35 percent of the Lakers’ payroll, and none of Los Angeles’ recent signings in free agency — Rajon Rondo, Michael Beasley, JaVale McGee, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, or Lance Stephenson — can be traded until Dec. 15. The Lakers have 22 more games between now and then.
That means the only players the Lakers can actually trade to shake thing up are players they considered part of their future:
- Brandon Ingram: $5.7 million
- Lonzo Ball: $7.4 million
- Kyle Kuzma: $1.7 million
- Josh Hart: $1.7 million
- Ivica Zubac: $1.5 million
- Mo Wagner: $1.7 million
- Svi Mykhailiuk: $1.5 million
The Lakers also have $102 million in salary on the payroll, which means they can’t take back much more than they give up in salary.
If the Lakers do make a trade before the Dec. 15 trade restriction on new free agents is lifted, they need to find an impact player with a small contract.
The Lakers could trade for Spencer Dinwiddie
Dinwiddie is killing it in Brooklyn and is only making $1.6 million. The Nets won’t be able to re-sign both Dinwiddie and D’Angelo Russell, and they also won’t allow themselves to let such a talented point guard walk out for nothing.
The Lakers need a point guard who can score consistently, and Dinwiddie can do that. The Nets aren’t giving him up for nothing, but they also can’t take back much more than they give up in salary. Here’s the deal that gets it done, but it also include’s Los Angeles’ 2019 first-round pick.
This trade might be hard for the Lakers, though, because a) they love Josh Hart; and b) they’re high on Svi Mykhailiuk — and rightfully so. Dinwiddie is a difference-maker, a starting point guard on multiple teams in this league. He’s aggressive offensively. The Lakers need that next to LeBron James. If Lonzo Ball won’t be aggressive, Dinwiddie can be.
But there aren’t many other options out there, either
Impact players get paid. The Lakers need an impact player, but they don’t have the contracts to match salaries in a trade for one. It puts them in a pickle between now and Dec. 15, when they can trade players like McGee, Rondo, Caldwell-Pope, and Beasley.
The Lakers could do nothing at all, and that would be OK. Their three losses prior to Toronto were by a combined nine points. The house isn’t on fire. Not just yet.
But if Los Angeles continues to lose and James’ patience runs thinner and thinner, we will see some smoke in Los Angeles. James’ teams usually pull out the fire extinguisher before the house catches fire.
If things don’t get better, someone could get burned.
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