NBA 2018-19 Unpopular Opinion: Luke Walton Deserves Another Chance

Luke Walton has gotten a lot of flak this season. He has been accused of wasting one of the Lakers three precious years with LeBron James.

There have been people saying he should be sacked without question. As there are less than a handful of games to conclude the 2018-19 season for the Lakers there are also eyes out to who may be the new Lakers coach if Luke Walton meets an unfortunate fate.

With Coach Walton, it was not only a game of putting together talent but also making sure that each large ego on that team was able to co-exist.

He has been constantly unable to bring the team towards larger win margins, good plays and his rotations have been constantly criticized.

The question still remains if he should really be the one to take all the blame for the team not making it to the playoffs. Here are some reasons we think he deserves another chance.

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#1 He Taught LeBron a New Game

By the end of the season, LeBron James was ignoring the play calls that Luke Walton was calling out, now whose fault is that?

Luke Walton is not one of the older coaches like Popovich who LeBron will actually listen to. On the other hand, though he has single-handedly created a playing style for the old warriors and he brought that along to LA as well.

His style of play is different to what LeBron has been used to, and that dynamic doesn't seem to make LeBron happy.

Overall, he may not have brought the team lots and lots of laurels, but it takes guts and an ability to coach to be able to even talk to the GOAT and tell him to change his gameplay. Unfortunately, the Lakers are not the Cavs.

He's not on the eastern conference where can just come and take over the entire game. LeBron James needs to lean and trust Luke Walton in this new style of gameplay.

#2 His Ability to Communicate

Luke Walton seemed to be struggling with big egos and a lack of passion through this season

The Lakers are well known as a team with lots of big egos. With each player thinking he doesn't need the rest, that can cause lots of issues as a coach.

However, there also exists the reality that Luke Walton has been constantly praised to be a strong communicator. He is known to be able to build a relationship with most players, and this is really important as a coach.

Now with all the tensions between the team, I think it was a big deal for him to bring them as far as he did. Not saying that he didn't make mistakes and the endorsement from Spoelstra may just save Walton's job, but Luke Walton has created a team dynamic to an extent that did not exist before.

#3 He Builds Tactics, not Inherent skill

Luke Walton is looking to create team gameplay not individual players

Lets put it this way, Luke Walton was successful in aiding the creation of a new style of gameplay when he was with the Warriors.

Its been a while since he shifted and hes had to work extremly hard to create the anti Warriors.

In my opinion, he's been largely successful in that attempt. He has a team of tall, young and athletic guys for the most part, who can play 1-5. They know how to get in the twos and find each other. Furthermore, they definitely have an underrated defense.

The team plays off fastbreaks and layups, and that is what is currently making things happen. This team can no longer depend on individual skill set like LeBron would have liked it too.

The one thing that they are lacking is three-point shooting, but that can be fixed over time. Furthermore, if you look at the team in terms of stats, they're not too far from the top looking at individual skillsets one at a time.