Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton has spoken about his goals for the team in his first season in charge. Walton has maintained that wins and losses won’t be the most important thing for his young team yet.
Instead Walton wants to lay the foundation and develop a culture with these young Lakers. With their mix of young talent and established veterans, the Lakers definitely have the pieces to do exactly that.
Walton recently sat down with Chris McGee of Time Warner Cable SportsNet and discussed exactly why it’s so important establish that culture:
“When you’re developing young players I think having an environment that makes the players want to come in, makes the players want to get better, it is everything. Because it’s a business now at this level for the most part and it’s young players making millions of dollars and a lot of times they can come in and just get their shots up and do what they need to do and get outta there, and that’s not what we want. We want them coming in, staying in, having fun, going at each other, making each other better.”
Walton was also very complimentary of his young players again, noting that they have been constants in the gym since he’s arrived:
“Since I’ve been here our young guys have been phenomenal. They’ve been in that gym everyday, not because we make them come in, because they want to be in there. And you can already see some of the progress happening.”
The young Lakers have been working out so much that they were nicknamed ‘The Breakfast Club’ since their workouts usually take place in the morning. Focusing not only on skill work, but also improving in the weight room, the young core looks poised to make a big leap next season.
That likely still won’t lead to a huge jump in wins as these things take time, but Walton has a plan, and the Lakers are on their way to executing it. Hopefully it begins to pay dividends sooner rather than later.
