Los Angeles Lakers: No playoffs would mean the end of Luke Walton

If the Los Angeles Lakers fail to make the playoffs this season, expect Luke Walton to be relieved of his duties as head coach

From all indications, Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton is a good man. He stepped in admirably, and was successful, for Steve Kerr (when he was dealing with health issues) a few years ago with the Golden State Warriors.

He even received a few votes for NBA Coach of the Year that season, which Kerr eventually won, but was never going to win because he wasn’t the “head coach” at the time. He did help lead the Warriors to a 39-4 start, though.

Still, Walton filling in for Kerr and coaching the Warriors to the second-best start in league history made him one of the hottest young up-and-coming coaches in the league, which ultimately helped land him the job he currently has with the Lakers.

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For the Lakers, hiring Walton was a no-brainer. He had played eight seasons with the Lakers and was young enough to relate to the young Lakers players in a way that few coaches could, but more importantly he knew how to coach a winning basketball team. He proved it.

The first two seasons with Walton at the helm, the Lakers did not win many games as they finished 26-56 and 35-47 and missed the playoffs in both seasons, but to Walton’s credit the Lakers did not have the talent to make the playoffs in the Western Conference.

The Lakers’ plan was to build for the future by selecting good draft picks, making smart free agent signings, and helping young players like Brandon Ingram develop into an All-Star caliber player.

That was until Los Angeles named former Lakers Hall of Fame player Magic Johnson President of Basketball Operations.

Johnson, the five-time NBA champion, wanted to win now. He was tired of the slow building mentality; wasn’t built for it. So much so that he announced that he would step down from his position with the Lakers if they could not sign a top free agent in his first two years.

Well last summer, Johnson delivered by signing the four-time NBA’s Most Valuable Player LeBron James and bringing in solid players like Rajon Rondo and Lance Stephenson to go along with the Lakers young core players of Ingram, Kyle Kuzma and Lonzo Ball.

The only problem with that is this season hasn’t exactly gone according to plan, and the Lakers are struggling to win. They are currently out of the top 8 and are under .500 heading into the NBA All-Star break.

Walton is not coaching a bunch of young players without All-Star veteran leadership anymore. He is coaching a team that has talent, not a lot of talent like the Warriors, but enough talent where the Lakers should make the playoffs and be at least a 7th seed in the Western Conference. At least.

Perhaps you can get away with making the excuse that LeBron missed a month and that Lonzo Ball has missed multiple games recently too, but injuries are part of the game and should be somewhat expected – or, at the very least, prepared for.

Despite the injuries, there’s really no excuse for the Lakers to currently be out of the top 8 in the West right now, especially considering this team is heading into the all-star break after an ugly loss to the Atlanta Hawks (with LeBron).

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Magic Johnson is about winning and if the Los Angeles Lakers fail to make the playoffs this season, it’s almost a forgone conclusion that Luke Walton will not return as the team’s head coach next season.

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