Getty Head coach Luke Walton of the Los Angeles Lakers, who are struggling with their playoff chances
Lakers head coach Luke Walton’s failure to lead Los Angeles to the playoffs this season with LeBron James has the question of his job security in the public crosshairs. Jeannie Buss had always been considered a backstop.
As Silver Screen and Roll writes:
“Not only did president of basketball operations Magic Johnson tell reporters he wouldn’t fire Walton in November (!!!), but there was also a belief that team president and controlling owner Jeanie Buss would step in if the front office decided to fire Walton this season. With seven games left in the season, that’s held true.
As Christian Rivas reports, “Once the season is over, though, Buss will reportedly let Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka do their job as they see fit.”
This is based on other reporting by Bill Oram of The Athletic.
(Walton) has long had an ally in Lakers owner Jeanie Buss, but team sources have indicated that she will let Johnson dictate what the Lakers do on the bench.
Buss joined the Lakers in Milwaukee at the end of their recent five-game East Coast road trip. For part of the flight home on the team charter, Walton sat next to the owner. They talked about “a bunch of different things,” he said, without going into detail.
“We were on an airplane,” Walton told The Athletic. “We weren’t going to get too deep into anything.”
In other words, Walton should probably start looking for a new job, assuming he hasn’t already — and it sounds like he hasn’t, because he’s still saying he expects to be around next year.
Should Walton get forced out by Johnson and Pelinka (with maybe a nudge from LeBron James), he may not have to travel far for his next gig. UCLA is looking for Steve Alford’s replacement.
Ben Bolch of the LA Times explained in January that the search is expected to focus on available professional coaches, including Earl Watson and Fred Hoiberg (who is expected to end up at Nebraska).
Sam Quinn of 247 Sports talks up Walton’s UCLA connection, as his dad was famously an All-American center for John Wooden.
College is a better fit for Walton than the NBA. His championship rings buy him credibility that just hasn’t materialized in the NBA, and it’s easier to install the sort of ball movement that Walton prefers at the college level. He’ll never be outranked by one of his players as he is with the Lakers, especially now that the Ball family has amputated itself from UCLA’s basketball future.
The Walton family, on the other hand, is UCLA royalty. Bill Walton is arguably the greatest player in the history of college basketball, and according to Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report, he is already lobbying to get his son that job…He would get the patience he never had with the Lakers from a fan base that would want him to succeed. This is the best story on the board.
Despite his playing days with Pac-12 rival Arizona in college, the Buss news could be lining up the pieces for Walton to take over a prestige college job in Westwood.