Luke Walton has already made an impression in his short time as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. Walton may not have been a star player during his playing days in purple and gold, but he’s well on his way to proving he has what it takes to be a good coach in the NBA.
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Metta World Peace, who won a title playing alongside Walton in Los Angeles, recently gave high praise to his current head coach and former teammate. World Peace believes Walton will not only be a great head coach in this league but a Hall of Famer to boot, as he told Mark Medina of the OC Register:
“Luke is going to be a Hall of Famer,” said World Peace, who played for Jackson from 2009 to 2011. “It’s kind of early. But I definitely see him going. It might be 40 years from now. But he’s going to be in there.”
Obviously, Walton has a long way to go. He’s only 25 games into his head coaching career and is currently facing the challenge of dealing with multiple injuries to key players on his roster.
Despite the injuries piling up, Walton has exceeded expectations thus far in his first season as Lakers head coach. The 36-year-old has quickly changed the culture and gotten his players to buy into his system and philosophy early in the process.
With the Lakers facing real adversity for the first time this season due to the injuries, it’ll be interesting to see how it pans out for Luke Walton in his rookie campaign as the leader on the sidelines.