Luke Walton: Warriors’ dominance is why the Lakers shouldn’t trade for a superstar

[iamworthy]

"I joke a lot. I said ‘if there's a time to be rebuilding, this is the time to do it.’ The Warriors don't look like they're going anywhere for a while. They're pretty darn good right now,” Walton said, saying he gets a certain level of satisfaction from helping the Lakers grow more naturally towards a title.

Despite all of that noise surely to come, Walton doesn’t think the Lakers should be rushing out to send out D’Angelo Russell, Brandon Ingram, the No. 2 pick or any of the rest of their young talent for one star, at least in part because of the dominance of the Warriors:

My only caution would be let's not give up too much of our young core for one superstar because, like we just talked about before, let’s not forget that those Golden State Warriors are just a little bit north of us and it's going to take a lot more than one superstar to dethrone them from the West. There's that fine line in trying to get there quicker rather than developing our own guys. I think Rob and Magic are very aware of that. They're constantly looking at the best way to get us to be a true contender, not just on paper."

http://www.silverscreenandroll.com/2017/6/6/15750830/la-lakers-trade-rumors-paul-george-luke-walton-golden-state-warriors-nba-finals-cleveland-cavaliers

Luke gets it.

[dockingsched]

To piggy back off Luke wanting to build with this young core:

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[MAMBAEMD]

I'm with Luke on being patient and developing the young core.
I would not trade DLo, Ingram, Randle, No 2 pick, Nance, or Zubac.
I'd let them develop.
I love the fact that they're showing drive and purpose, and are already working out during the off-season.
I'd selectively try to trade and dump salaries like Clarkson .
But I'd not move the other youngsters.

[TheHartBreakKid]

Luke is a smart smart man. Not to hate on Byron or whatever cause all of that is really old news at this point....and keep in mind I have been critical of Luke and believe he is still a work in progress as a coach and needs to grow with the team, BUT:

This is the difference between having a "committed" coach that shares the vision of an organization. While Luke isn't nearly on the level of these other coaches, it is still important to note that besides coaching ability one of the elite qualities about Pop, Carlisle, Brad Stevens, Spolstra, and Kerr are the way they tend to have a long term of vision regarding a team. That's something Phil never had in LA, and most coaches around the league don't. I mean, it's not that I blame those coaches as the coach tends to be the first guy to be blamed for a poor roster. Of course, this long term outlook also isn't possible without a level of commitment and collaboration from the FO, which I believe is more present with this FO than the previous FO. You rarely see a coach say "we shouldn't trade for superstars if we aren't going to be contenders". I mean hell, coaches like byron would have traded future assets and young players for overpaid veterans if they thought it would give them a few more W's. And again, I'm not blaming those type of coaches, because they are often the first ones to be blamed. However, this is a good rare quality for a coach to have. I've said this many times before, but Luke is far from perfect as a coach. He is young, inexperienced, and unproven. However, he has high bball IQ, likable, and while he hasn't fully proven it yet he seems to atleast have very good potential for managing egos and the lockeroom. It's too early to judge if he is stubborn or willing to adapt his system/coaching method based on his roster, and it's also uncertain if he has the authority/demeanor to coach superstars. However, for a young team with no established superstars, and a roster that's a work in progress, I think he is simply the perfect coach for us right now. His dedicated to train with players and build personal relationships with them while maintaining a long term outlook just further supports that.

[TheHartBreakKid]

I'm with Luke on being patient and developing the young core.
I would not trade DLo, Ingram, Randle, No 2 pick, Nance, or Zubac.
I'd let them develop.
I love the fact that they're showing drive and purpose, and are already working out during the off-season.
I'd selectively try to trade and dump salaries like Clarkson .
But I'd not move the other youngsters.

I agree that Luke's presence makes me more reluctant than to move any of those guys. I think out of that list I would only consider trading Randle simply due to his extension coming up soon and our 2018 FA plans. Unfortunately for Randle, he lost a season for developement and his extension is close. I think by his third year Dlo will show enough to prove he's worthy of a max/large extension, and Randle might easily do that as well. The only problem is that with Randle we would have to pull the trigger without knowing that. ANDDDDD that's the most frustrating part of the Moz/Deng deals to me, though I don't mean to derail the topic. It's not about the fact that I'm certain we could have had better players with the capspace. It's more about the fact that we lost a large portion of financial flexibility with those deals that will affect every difficult decision we'll have to make in the next 4 years.

[MAMBAEMD]

I'm with Luke on being patient and developing the young core.
I would not trade DLo, Ingram, Randle, No 2 pick, Nance, or Zubac.
I'd let them develop.
I love the fact that they're showing drive and purpose, and are already working out during the off-season.
I'd selectively try to trade and dump salaries like Clarkson .
But I'd not move the other youngsters.

I agree that Luke's presence makes me more reluctant than to move any of those guys. I think out of that list I would only consider trading Randle simply due to his extension coming up soon and our 2018 FA plans. Unfortunately for Randle, he lost a season for developement and his extension is close. I think by his third year Dlo will show enough to prove he's worthy of a max/large extension, and Randle might easily do that as well. The only problem is that with Randle we would have to pull the trigger without knowing that. ANDDDDD that's the most frustrating part of the Moz/Deng deals to me, though I don't mean to derail the topic. It's not about the fact that I'm certain we could have had better players with the capspace. It's more about the fact that we lost a large portion of financial flexibility with those deals that will affect every difficult decision we'll have to make in the next 4 years.

I hear what you're saying about Mozgov/Deng.
I purposefully stayed away from that discussion in this thread, not to derail the discussion.

I'd still say we should give Randle one more year.
He is physically a beast. He has talent. And drive.
I'm not ready to give up on him.
With the right play-maker (Ball), Randle can find himself in good scoring situations, much better than the last couple of years where he basically had to create his own shot.
And as you said, he lost one year due to injury, so he's only had two seasons to develop his game.
And that's just not enough time to develop for a big in the NBA.

Give him one more year.
He may yet develop into something special. He certainly has the potential.

[Michael Lucky]

and yeah he hits the key point immediately. There's no way to beat the GOAT team over the next couple of years. We're not playing for Bronze here.

[Slava]

Jeannie won't like to hear it because she wants to put out a good product but its the truth. The commercial side and basketball side have to find a way to meet in the middle.

[MAMBAEMD]

I agree with you Slava.
I also think the commercial side will be just fine once they draft Lonzo.
He will be a gift to this franchise from a PR and commercial standpoint in the short-term, and a stud from the basketball perspective in the long-run.
The basketball side will lag behind a few years, which is okay, because we are in the GSW era anyway.

[Slava]

In related Luke news

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[Tee212]

ya im all with the our home grown be patient and let them develop. funny to think kd, russ and harden was all on the same team...split them up and theyre basically superstars mvp type players.

[TJM217]

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Damn I like that shirt!! I might have to get one

[LakersSoul]

"I joke a lot. I said ‘if there's a time to be rebuilding, this is the time to do it.’ The Warriors don't look like they're going anywhere for a while. They're pretty darn good right now,” Walton said, saying he gets a certain level of satisfaction from helping the Lakers grow more naturally towards a title.

Despite all of that noise surely to come, Walton doesn’t think the Lakers should be rushing out to send out D’Angelo Russell, Brandon Ingram, the No. 2 pick or any of the rest of their young talent for one star, at least in part because of the dominance of the Warriors:

My only caution would be let's not give up too much of our young core for one superstar because, like we just talked about before, let’s not forget that those Golden State Warriors are just a little bit north of us and it's going to take a lot more than one superstar to dethrone them from the West. There's that fine line in trying to get there quicker rather than developing our own guys. I think Rob and Magic are very aware of that. They're constantly looking at the best way to get us to be a true contender, not just on paper."

http://www.silverscreenandroll.com/2017/6/6/15750830/la-lakers-trade-rumors-paul-george-luke-walton-golden-state-warriors-nba-finals-cleveland-cavaliers

Luke gets it.

Seriously, good to read and hear Magic, Pelinka and Luke thinking this way. Championship is the goal and not just making the playoffs. No silly trades to become the next Knicks.

[stan francisco]

Man, what a good feeling knowing that the peeps in charge see it the same way as some of us fans do. I just hope Magilinka agrees. Couldn't say I had even remotely the same level of trust in BS' and Jim's judgment, it's not even on the same planet.

There should be a growth from within plan with this young team. There is. There should be no rush to make knee jerk reaction trades. There isn't. There should be patience and tolerance and a long term plan with this young group. There is.

I'm loving it. Add Ball to the about-to-break-out young foursome of Russell, Ingram, Randle, Zubać and I see us with a fair chance of making the playoffs already next season.

Balmer claiming to have LA's best team marks the end of that, Lakers will be back on top once CP3 and Griffin leave. It's a good time to be a Laker fan.

[tugs]

Whew. I think we can all have a sigh of relief now. Finally. It just makes perfect sense that as the Dubs decline, the Lakers are on their way up. Why sacrifice potential talent and become really good in the future to become mediocre now?

[meetbishop]

Man, what a good feeling knowing that the peeps in charge see it the same way as some of us fans do. I just hope Magilinka agrees. Couldn't say I had even remotely the same level of trust in BS' and Jim's judgment, it's not even on the same planet.

There should be a growth from within plan with this young team. There is. There should be no rush to make knee jerk reaction trades. There isn't. There should be patience and tolerance and a long term plan with this young group. There is.

I'm loving it. Add Ball to the about-to-break-out young foursome of Russell, Ingram, Randle, Zubać and I see us with a fair chance of making the playoffs already next season.

Balmer claiming to have LA's best team marks the end of that, Lakers will be back on top once CP3 and Griffin leave. It's a good time to be a Laker fan.

We don't even need 2 superstars next season as Magic has been saying. Because i think in an attempt to do that we may make dumb trades giving up our young core to create cup space. I hope the you guys will negotiate wisely and not try to get the max by all means and stay and developer with this team.

If any team is well capable of paying luxury tax in the near future it is this the Lakers. Don't rush for payday now work hard to be part of the core of this team and Lakers will take care of you as we always have.

[ozymandias818]

We can't afford to keep the entire young core long term anyway. Luke has the right idea, but we're inevitably going to need to ship out guys like Deng, and Mozgov, and Clarkson, and Randle. Keep D'lo, keep Ingram, keep Ball/whoever we get in a couple weeks, and do whatever else you have to do to get value, and don't bother bringing in anyone over, say, 27.

[RingsDontLie]

I agree, no rush moves obviously that would require trading our top young talent. But seriously we do need a strategy to get rid of Moz and Deng. There has got to be a team out there that would take our houston pick and Moz or Deng up.

[Mirjalovic]

Thats why i preaching patience.

Our best bet is hoping all of our lottery pick to become allstars


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[Mirjalovic]

We can't afford to keep the entire young core long term anyway. Luke has the right idea, but we're inevitably going to need to ship out guys like Deng, and Mozgov, and Clarkson, and Randle. Keep D'lo, keep Ingram, keep Ball/whoever we get in a couple weeks, and do whatever else you have to do to get value, and don't bother bringing in anyone over, say, 27.

Why we should give up easily on a young productive guard and an even younger triple double threat PF in Randle?


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