Wednesday night, Luke Walton was standing at center court at Oracle Arena, getting credit from Steve Kerr as the latter accepted his Coach of the Year award.
In the next couple days, Walton could be sitting down with Lakers’ brass talking about their coaching opening.
Kerr said Golden State has given Los Angeles permission to speak with Walton, reports Michael Lee of The Vertical at Yahoo Sports.
Walton is the guy at the top of the Lakers’ wish list. That list looks something like Walton, Spurs assistant Ettore Messina, Walton, UConn coach Kevin Ollie, Jeff Van Gundy, Walton, David Blatt, and Walton.
The Lakers want a guy who can both recruit free agents, plus form a strong relationship with and develop the tea’s young stars. Walton is liked around the league and at age 36 is younger and can relate to younger players better than old-school Byron Scott.
The question is does he want the job? Put another way, are the Lakers going to give him the money and years it will take to pry him away from Stephen Curry and the small ball revolution? He’s going to want to get PAID and have some security before he makes any move.