Lakers hired Luke Walton too soon

Luke Walton might have come into the picture too soon.

Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss decided to hire Golden State Warriors assistant coach Luke Walton after a diminutive coaching search to start the Lakers off-season.

Walton is an interesting hire at the end of the day because he’s a former Laker of course, his father is the great Bill Walton, and in his playing career the most impressive skill was his basketball IQ.

However, there are a few problems that keep reoccurring with the Lakers hiring process since Phil Jackson left the team in 2011.

For starters the Lakers didn’t take advantage in interviewing at least more than three candidates.

By doing this they were hoping to land the right coach and were risking it and so far it seems the risk is worth it. We all will have to wait till the off-season to how worth the risk it was.

The real question is how does a team get their ideal fit for a coach by only interviewing one person? It makes no sense at all.

Other candidates would’ve been Mark Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy, Kevin Ollie, David Blatt, and a few more capable coaches.

Those coaches aren’t a better fit than Walton at this moment in time, but at least going deep into their coaching search would’ve been the best choice this time.

Walton is the perfect fit for the Lakers at this point in time.

Furthermore, the hiring came way too swift. I know the organization didn’t want to drag out the process throughout the NBA playoffs, but this was an opportunity to sit back and learn from mistakes made from the last three failed coaching decisions since Jackson left in 2011.

The second problem with this hiring is the Lakers fired Scott a week after top candidates Tom Thibodeau and Scott Brooks agreed to become head coaches for other organizations.

Firing Byron Scott should’ve occurred immediately after the season as opposed to two weeks after the season ended.

The coaching search would’ve started much earlier and they would’ve had the opportunity to interview Scott Brooks who showed strong interest and Tom Thibodeau.

Additionally, once again the lack of urgency in the offseason is killing the Lakers for a third straight year. Urgency is the difference between an organization on the rise like the Boston Celtics and an organization that’s stuck in idle mode like the Philadelphia 76ers.

The jury is still out on whether Walton can be a successful head coach in the NBA due to not having such a stout coaching resume.

Lets be real, I can probably coach that Golden State Warrior team to a 39-4 record while head coach Steve Kerr was recovering from surgery.

That’s no jab toward Walton but the Warriors are historically the best regular season team in NBA history.

This is a great opportunity for both Walton and the Lakers.

Walton gets a chance to prove himself as a head coach with a young team that has young talent, while the Lakers as an organization will start off fresh with a rookie head coach with tons of potential and loads of cap space to fill in needs with more talent.

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Therefore, the Lakers have heaps of room to make mistakes while progressing the young players as time continue to move forward.