Luke Walton: Legendary "Appreciation" Thread

This guy just does so many things that don't end up on the stat sheets. He runs the offense better than almost anyone on the team. Always a willing passer. Can hit the 3 when asked to. Plays solid team defense.

Luke's IQ is vastly underrated here, he really is a great fit in that starting lineup and I want to see him there for the rest of the season.

your walking on thin ice here, man.

Wow. I know Laker swagger is at an all time high, but I think you're being a bit generous here.

WeLoveLA wrote:Can hit the 3 when asked to. Plays solid team defense.

Easy there tiger.

areyou watching the games????



do you not get frustrated when the rebound falls into his hands.. and then proceeds to jump and headbutt it out of his hands???

Luke is a decent player.

It's just that:

a) He is a slow unathletic white dude and
b) People need someone on the team to pick on

WeLoveLA wrote:This guy just does so many things that don't end up on the stat sheets. He runs the offense better than almost anyone on the team. Always a willing passer. Can hit the 3 when asked to. Plays solid team defense.

Luke's IQ is vastly underrated here, he really is a great fit in that starting lineup and I want to see him there for the rest of the season.

Well, it's because of two things primarily. 1) Lack of bball IQ among most internet message board posters and 2) Luke's lack of athleticism which means he will rarely, if ever, have a monster dunk on someone's face or a reject a shot so hard and yell out a primal scream. Basically, Luke doesn't do the types of things that end up on Sportscenter's top 10 list and so for that, when he does make mistakes, they get magnified because he doesn't have that facial he just put on someone that you can look at to forgive him for it.

Frankly, I probably don't even get it as much as Phil does. But Phil does. Some folks on this board do, but the majority don't. Remember, this is the SAME place that listed Sasha Vujacic as the "worst player in the NBA". We aren't great evaluators of talent -- but as a whole we're darn good fans.

^ Hm. Fair analysis I guess.

knm131 wrote:We aren't great evaluators of talent -- but as a whole we're darn good fans.

ne'er a truer word be said

Luke sticks to the game plan. He's someone who can be a glue guy in a system where the ball needs to be moved around for the best opportunity to strike. Luke might have have the athleticism or remarkable abilities overall, but what he does do well (score in the paint, entry passing, finding cutters) makes everyone around him that much better. We have offensive talents (Gasol, Kobe, Odom, Bynum, Fisher, Farmar), and with Luke we have someone that allows them to do what they do even better.

Most people won't ever say this, but Luke did a nice job bodying Pierce late in Thursday's game, and he had some nice stretches X-Mas day as well. I'm not saying he shut him down, but he held his position and he didn't get murdered by one of the better SF's in the league.

Luke, is that you? Maybe RJ?

WeLoveLA wrote:This guy just does so many things that don't end up on the stat sheets.

We can't measure it...but trust me, it's there.

He runs the offense better than almost anyone on the team.

I wasn't aware that he actually "ran" the offense. But if throwing the ball into the post is "running the offense"...okay I'll give you that. He's not the only one who can do it though.

Always a willing passer.

Yes, we know. He's a willing passer because he has no chance to do anything else.

Can hit the 3 when asked to.

Really? He's basically asked to take threes by the opposing defense on every trip down the floor...why does he almost always decline to make them pay?

Plays solid team defense.

Another euphemism for a human turnstile who couldn't guard a gnat.

Luke's IQ is vastly underrated here, he really is a great fit in that starting lineup and I want to see him there for the rest of the season.

I wasn't aware that a basketball game was similar to an IQ test. Maybe he should consider putting the pencil and paper away and actually use that great IQ to figure out how to move his feet.

WeLoveLA wrote:This guy just does so many things that don't end up on the stat sheets. He runs the offense better than almost anyone on the team. Always a willing passer. Can hit the 3 when asked to. Plays solid team defense.

Luke's IQ is vastly underrated here, he really is a great fit in that starting lineup and I want to see him there for the rest of the season.

You gonna get flamed for this but I got your back man. I never understood it to much myself mainly for most of the reasons you pointed out.

He is not an all star, lock down defender, or a great scorer but he def can do a lil bit of everything.

Like u said he can hit the occasional three but I really love his back to the basket game. How many times have we seen him back his defender down and score inside with ease. He's not as good as radman behind the 3 point line but he's def not radman on defense either. He gets in there and he does his job. what more do people want from him? its not like we are vastly overpaying him or anything then i would understand.

Luke unathletic? you dont say
[img]http://www.deseretnews.com/photos/midres/5494080.jpg[/img]

man can someone make my img tag work....

DarthRekal wrote:areyou watching the games????



do you not get frustrated when the rebound falls into his hands.. and then proceeds to jump and headbutt it out of his hands???

Like in today's game I just laughed it off, and said that's Luke for ya.

There.

Luke's turnaround fadeaway hoop today against the cavs was certainly sportscenter material, but then again he has his usual quota of boneheaded moments (the recent inbounds pass against the bobcats!) that make many of us cringe. The one thing i will say about luke is that he has NO fear of the celtics (perhaps having spent years as a kid being very near the celts), but his fear of taking the money shot is well documented!

All in all, luke is all right, maybe if he can get some dance moves and inhale poses, he'd be good for the celebration out in LA this coming june.

LO7cK35 wrote:its not like we are vastly overpaying him or anything then i would understand.

I give him props for that "1 yr" I dont know if those ankle injuries have slowed him down or was it the typical contract yr production?

^

We'll never know.

LO7cK35 wrote:Like u said he can hit the occasional three but I really love his back to the basket game. How many times have we seen him back his defender down and score inside with ease. He's not as good as radman behind the 3 point line but he's def not radman on defense either. He gets in there and he does his job. what more do people want from him? its not like we are vastly overpaying him or anything then i would understand.

I'm sorry to break this to you...but this is utterly and totally devoid of fact.

His occasional threes are well.... occasional...which loosely translated also means "almost never".

He thinks he has a back to the basket game...it's pitiful and ugly to watch like a Mastiff trying to bang a Yorkie.

The scoring with ease is something that doesn't actually happen...because inevitably the Yorkie puts up a fight.

If you wanted to compare his defense with Radman, you'd be subscribing to myth that Radman totally sucks on defense....actually that's Luke, Radman is simply mediocre and at time actually quite serviceable especially as a man defender. I encourage you watch tapes of last year's playoffs if you don't find this to be true.

Your last point about Luke not being "vastly overpaid" is not in touch with reality. There are five guys on the current squad who make more money than Luke Walton:

Kobe Bryant
Pau Gasol
Lamar Odom
Derek Fisher
Sasha Vujacic

Fish and Sasha are paid a couple hundred K per year more than Luke, but Luke deal is for five more seasons after this one.

kray28 wrote:

Can hit the 3 when asked to.

Really? He's basically asked to take threes by the opposing defense on every trip down the floor...why does he almost always decline to make them pay?

Plays solid team defense.

Another euphemism for a human turnstile who couldn't guard a gnat.

Luke's IQ is vastly underrated here, he really is a great fit in that starting lineup and I want to see him there for the rest of the season.

I wasn't aware that a basketball game was similar to an IQ test. Maybe he should consider putting the pencil and paper away and actually use that great IQ to figure out how to move his feet.

Obviously he meant basketball iq as in knows how to find the open man, when to pass/shoot, his assignments, when and where to help on defense, etc..


Im not sure where you get that he always declines the three I have seen him shoot it many times, with success, the times he passes it up is usually because he know's he that we can get a better shot, has to go with the bball iq again, he knows his strengths and weaknessess, he is not going to sit there and chuck three's all game when he knows we can get something better. Like i said before he is not a great threepoint shooter but he can definetly knock it down.

As far as the defense comment phil trusted him enough to guard Paul pierce the other night and He seemed to do a pretty decent job. Pierce was almost non existant throughout most of the game

LO7cK35 wrote:Im not sure where you get that he always declines the three I have seen him shoot it many times, with success...

a 1-in-3 success.

I thought Kobe defended PP towards the end?