Anyone else think Luke Walton is garbage?

[salsaking]

Man what's up with this guy? Why is he even starting? His offense has regressed over the last couple of weeks and all he does is get into the paint only to be rejected by opposing big men. Why isn't Ariza starting over this guy?

[hermes]

no
we're all waiting for him to channel his inner bill walton

[Mindflayer]

Yes. If getting your offense going is driving the lane and getting stuffed every time than he's succeeded.

[ak777]

walton was blocked yesterday like 100 times....and he also was so skeptical about his own shot??

how can you dare to win...when 2 of ur starters look for passing the ball....2 guards and then there is kwame(enough said)

[TylersLakers]

Yeah, I also think we should go with Ariza in the starting lineup. It would have been fine if Luke was performing well, but the last couple games he hasn't been good. Maybe being moved to 6th man would motivate him a little bit.

[SashAlex]

Do you play better than him ? Go and show how to play the game better !

[Dexmor]

Just overrated not garbadge.

[xSABOx]

he's playing like he used to before he got hot at the end of the 05-06 season...

[Danny Darko]

he's playing like he used to before he got hot at the end of the 05-06 season...

True but he's valuable when he's confident and keeps the passing lubed up.

Trevor should be seeing more minutes because when his offense game is failing him, he can still D his man up.

Garbage? no, just slumping hard at a time when multiple lakers are looking off.

[Sedale Threatt]

We have a problem in that all our small forward -- Luke, Ariza and Radmanovic -- are all capable in certain areas but aren't really qualified to be legitimate NBA starters.

Put Ariza in, and you'd notice a dropoff in shooting and passing. Put Radmanovic in, and you'd notice a dropoff in just about everything but shooting. Then you have Luke, who is a solid offensive conduit but doesn't really do anything exceptionally well.

Ideally, none of them should be playing any more than 20 minutes a night or so.

[TonyMontana]

Do you play better than him ? Go and show how to play the game better !

S.A , I am not a pro baller , yet I play a lot of B.Ball.

Unfortunatly I wasnt gifted with the Height and size of Luke or anyone in the NBA.
Im 6.1 and I weight 210 .
I promise you one thing , even though Im not a pro baller and Im not getting payed millions of dollars to play a simple game of basketball for a career .
Yet everytime I step on the court , I play my heart out .
I hate to loose , or get punked out by a bunch of nobodies .
But as far as my career , I am the best at what I do , since its MY CAREER , thats the problem with these guys .
They get payed millions for playing a simple game of basketball which should be a blessing for them since they dont have to do anything other than put a ball thru a hoop for a living and make millions of dollars doing it .

So ya Im sorry that I cant go and take Lukes place , but I promise you one thing If I could I would , and I would be dam good doing it too.
I would play a lot better than Kwame , Luke or any other sorry A55 player out there thats getting payed millions for PLAYING A SIMPLE GAME OF BASKETBALL .

[Lost Angel]

i don't get why Luke is the captain of the bench MOB. run the offense through him. we already have Lamar and Kobe to do that in the first unit. throw Ariza out there, and then have Luke come in to go against a tired first unit or a fresh second unit

[J Rob]

Our deepest position is really starting to be our bane.

Personally, I think while Rad is injured we should just move Kobe to SF.

PG - Fish
SG - Sasha
SF - Kobe

or

PG - Farmar
SG - Fish
SF - Kobe

Sasha really got our offense going last night and without Radmanovic we need someone to hit some shots and stretch the floor.

[RJM]

Man what's up with this guy? Why is he even starting? His offense has regressed over the last couple of weeks and all he does is get into the paint only to be rejected by opposing big men. Why isn't Ariza starting over this guy?

I wouldn't call him garbage. He's just having a rough stretch. I mean didn't he just get back from injury the other day?

[semi-sentient]

We have a problem in that all our small forward -- Luke, Ariza and Radmanovic -- are all capable in certain areas but aren't really qualified to be legitimate NBA starters.

Put Ariza in, and you'd notice a dropoff in shooting and passing. Put Radmanovic in, and you'd notice a dropoff in just about everything but shooting. Then you have Luke, who is a solid offensive conduit but doesn't really do anything exceptionally well.

Ideally, none of them should be playing any more than 20 minutes a night or so.

Pretty much agree with that.

I don't think Walton is garbage, but he definitely is struggling recently. Not sure what his deal is, but his shots aren't falling and he seems to have forgotten about that little fade away turnaround shot that he typically hits in the post. He's completely out of wack this season, and it's likely because he's been moved back and forth from the starting lineup to the bench and back. I personally think he'll be fine, seeing as how he's a smart player, but hopefully he gets out of his funk real soon because we need for him to produce on the offensive end.

[Sedale Threatt]

He's just not a natural shooter, nor a particularly good athlete.

Even after all the work he's apparently put in, he still heaves the ball off his shoulder rather than he strokes it. The only time he really makes anything is when he has plenty of time and space to size up the basket.

I didn't agree with this at the time I read it in Sports Illustrated, but after the past few weeks you can see what this scout was getting at: "Luke Walton is a 50-50 player who won't hurt you, but he won't help you win games either. He's a do-nothing wrong, do-nothing-right player as far as helping his team win."

I still think this is a bit harsh. But hard to argue this season.

Take his brain, put it in Ariza's body, and mix in Radmanovic's shooting touch, and you'd have a damn good player. Unfortunately, that's not an option so we're stuck mixing and matching with what we've got.

[crazyeights]

Sedale is absolutely right, right now our SF position is plagued by "specialists."

My hope is Ariza hits the gym this summer with Farmar and improves his jumpshot.

[xSABOx]

i know it's off-topic, but I wish Jordan would've went through with the rumored Odom to NJ, Jefferson to CHA and Wallace to LA three-way deal...

have you seen the number the guy has been putting up???

in his last 10 games, 27/10/5/2/1 and he's hitting the three ball now...

[milesfides]

Our deepest position is really starting to be our bane.

Personally, I think while Rad is injured we should just move Kobe to SF.

PG - Fish
SG - Sasha
SF - Kobe

or

PG - Farmar
SG - Fish
SF - Kobe

Sasha really got our offense going last night and without Radmanovic we need someone to hit some shots and stretch the floor.

That's a great idea. We need another shooter/scorer on the floor. Given our 5 usual starters, we're not going to run our offense well anyways - Kwame is a liability and nobody except Kobe and Fish can shoot right now.

Sasha and Farmar are confident shooters who can shoot it, so at least one of them should be in the starting lineup.

Walton just hasn't adjusted well since Bynum went out. Last year, when he had his post game going, he was a very surprising and efficient scorer. He's trying to get back into that since Bynum went down, but as we can see, he's just not there yet. He should be benched until he can.

Walton's not garbage, he's just playing like garbage right now. He's not the only one though. Several players are going through a transition, including Odom and Fisher.

[Tommy Trojan]

Oh boy now it's Walton, what ever happened to Kwame?