Does Luke Walton Deserve Another Head Coaching Job?

After a disappointing 6-11 start to the season, the Sacramento Kings fired head coach Luke Walton.

The firing of Walton wasn’t a major surprise since there had been rumors of his departure for weeks before as the team continued to languish and embarrass itself.

Now that Walton has been given the ax, many are wondering if he will land his third head coaching job in the near future.

When looking at his career and (limited) success, it seems obvious that Walton is not yet ready to be the coach of an NBA team right now.

His Only Success Came With Champions

Walton’s biggest claim to fame as a coach was that he was in charge of the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors for a while when Steve Kerr was sidelined with surgery.

During his time coaching, Walton saw his Warriors win an NBA-record 24 games in a row.

His temporary time as head coach ended with a record of 39-4.

Because of this, it was assumed that Walton would go on to be one of the best coaches in the NBA.

Yet, when he finally did secure his second coaching job with the Los Angeles Lakers, success didn’t come easy.

In his three years leading the Lakers, the team went 98-148.

Obviously, the two teams were drastically different in terms of their talent and skills but the fact that Walton went from the best record in the league to one of the worst says a lot.

It has become very apparent that Walton’s brief success as a coach was because of the squad he was in charge of.

The Warriors were led by MVP Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and others.

It seems obvious that Walton is only capable of achieving greatness when his team is full of All-Star talent, which is not the trait of a good coach.

He Doesn’t Work Well With The Team

One of the biggest complaints about Walton with the Kings was that he didn’t know how to properly create a roster that played to the team’s strengths.

The Kings currently have terrific talents like De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, Marvin Bagley III, and more.

Even though they are young and inexperienced, the team should be in much better shape if they had a coach who was able to inspire and lead them.

There was talk of great division between Walton and the team and that simply cannot happen if someone hopes to be a head coach.

Former pro and current NBA analyst Matt Barnes spoke of the conflict.