The likelihood of the Golden State Warriors dominating the NBA for the next few years presumably has many Western Conference teams altering their multi-year plan, and now one head coach is admitting it outright.
In an appearance on Bleacher Report’s “The Full 48” podcast on Tuesday, Los Angeles Lakers coach Luke Walton said he thinks the team should move towards a long rebuild instead of trading for a star.
“I joke a lot,” said Walton, per CBS Sports’ Kyle Boone. “I said ‘if there’s a time to be rebuilding, this is the time to do it.’ The Warriors don’t look like they’re going anywhere for awhile. They’re pretty darn good right now. Obviously there’s players in this league that if you can get, it’s really tough to say no to because the stars in this league are good enough to make you a contender or not — the difference between having a very good team with lots of role players or having a team that can actually, legitimately win an NBA championship.
“My only caution would be let’s not give up too much of our young core for one superstar because, like we just talked about before, let’s not forget that those Golden State Warriors are just a little bit north of us and it’s going to take a lot more than one superstar to dethrone them from the West,” he continued. “There’s that fine line in trying to get there quicker rather than developing our own guys. I think Rob [Pelinka] and Magic [Johnson] are very aware of that. They’re constantly looking at the best way to get us to be a true contender, not just on paper.”
A continued rebuild phase might not be what Laker fans want to hear after four consecutive seasons now of winning 27 or fewer games. But Walton, who was the lead assistant on the Warriors just last year, knows the reality of the league’s totem pole. The Lakers probably won’t be the only team strategizing with Golden State in mind, but it will be interesting to see if their approach to this potentially available star player changes as well.
