The Lakers remain a mess, but at least coach Luke Walton’s job is safe.
Despite the Lakers starting off like one of the Western Conference’s worst teams (4-6 record), Lakers president Magic Johnson put out the speculation fire regarding Walton’s job safety: Walton’s job is not in jeopardy, despite him being reprimanded earlier this season by Johnson after the team’s miserable start.
“Yeah, we’re not going to fire him,” Johnson told ESPN on Sunday. “[The meeting last week with Walton] wasn’t even a meeting about that. We just have to be better, and that was it.”
Earlier Sunday, Johnson spoke to the Los Angeles Times, also squashing the rumors around Walton’s job security.
“He’s going to finish the season,” Johnson said. “Unless something drastic happens, which it won’t.”
Johnson’s comforting words came before the latest Lakers beatdown, in which they put up one of their worst first-quarter performances in franchise history. They failed to break 20 points and were outscored by more than 24 points, the first time in the modern shot-clock era, according to ESPN. The Lakers lost, 121-107.
That setback likely won’t sit well with Johnson, nor will it calm down professional cheerleader LaVar Ball, who questioned Walton’s coaching ability by criticizing his handling of his son, Lonzo, and LeBron James.
“They’re starting off a little ragged because, if you have a guy that’s your second pick and you have the best player in the world, don’t take them out of the game, leave them in the game and rotate three other guys around them,” Ball said Friday.
On Tuesday, Johnson met with Walton after the Lakers’ horrid 2-5 start, which not many envisioned after the Lakers inked James in the summer. According to the report, the meeting between the pair was about Walton’s future and the “intense and immediate pressure” on him to get wins right now.
James called the meeting no big deal on Saturday. Johnson backed that saying the meeting was positive, but it was about team performance rather than Walton’s future.
“We’re last in defense. We got to get better,” he said.
In Walton’s defense, he’s working with an entirely different roster than the last two seasons. He hasn’t had all his pieces either, especially after the Lakers-Rockets brawl that left two starters suspended (Brandon Ingram and Rajon Rondo).
“My job is hard, but it is a lot of fun,” Walton said before Sunday’s loss. “I love my job. And nothing changed. It didn’t get any harder.”