<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Luke Walton reached agreement Sunday with the Los Angeles Lakers on a six-year, $30 million contract after general manager Mitch Kupchak placed a call one minute after midnight to express the team's interest in retaining its best unrestricted free agent.They called at the earliest possible moment, and we worked on it all day," agent Lon Babby said. "They wanted him back, and Luke wanted to be there. We wanted to make every effort to get an agreement.before we went out and looked at any other teams."</div>http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2922663Can't express how good this is to hear. Walton was a vital part of the team last year and will be for years to come, if healthy. Good News.... :dribble:
Luke Walton played a huge part in the Lakers early surge. He's very versatile and as Lakersfan said he's a vital part of his team. Despite this, don't you think that they could have signed Walton for less than 30 million? I get that he deserves a good amount of money but 30 million is alot. Alot of overpaying going on.
Great signing and I think for the cost he was a GREAT bargain! Luke Walton is one of my favorite players.
Great signing. He's a good overall player. He may not be the most athletic guy, but he can now shoot the ball pretty well....And he is one of the smartest players in the NBA...all teams need a guy who is not the PG who will just make stuff happen for you...this is what Luke Walton does...He's a great passer...
Terrible, 6 year deal for a matador overglorified role player. He has to be involved in some sort of deal, I don't want him on the roster.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Melo061 @ Jul 1 2007, 09:43 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Terrible, 6 year deal for a matador overglorified role player. He has to be involved in some sort of deal, I don't want him on the roster.</div>How is Luke Walton a matador overglorified role player?Im pretty sure he was one of the bright spots for the LA Lakers last season, mabye you haven't seen the guy play since his rookie season.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Terrible, 6 year deal for a matador overglorified role player. He has to be involved in some sort of deal, I don't want him on the roster.</div>Hell, even in his rookie year he had a good game in the Finals passing the ball.This guy was pretty important to the Lakers; probably their best passer next to Lamar Odom. He played both forward positions, shot pretty well, and was consistent with the assists, something important in that triangle offense.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Young Legend @ Jul 1 2007, 10:11 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>still not a starter in this league though.</div> Why not? He's a very smart player, an excellent passer, he hustles, and he can hit the 3. He's a pretty good player, and I'd say the deal LA just got him back with is very reasonable. Great move.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Amare320 @ Jul 2 2007, 12:58 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>How is Luke Walton a matador overglorified role player?Im pretty sure he was one of the bright spots for the LA Lakers last season, mabye you haven't seen the guy play since his rookie season.</div>Bright spots? After his fast start, fluky start hitting 20-35 from 3 land he hit the ground. Shoot 44% in the last 3 months of the year (as a 3rd option), 33% from land. Averaged 11/5/4 in the 2nd half of the season.And his matador defense hurt this team mightily. We need an athletic defensive minded 3 mand, not an offense minded guy who gets torched on defense.Puke needs to be traded.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Melo061 @ Jul 2 2007, 04:42 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Bright spots? After his fast start, fluky start hitting 20-35 from 3 land he hit the ground. Shoot 44% in the last 3 months of the year (as a 3rd option), 33% from land. Averaged 11/5/4 in the 2nd half of the season.And his matador defense hurt this team mightily. We need an athletic defensive minded 3 mand, not an offense minded guy who gets torched on defense.Puke needs to be traded.</div>That's because the whole entire lakers team with the exception of kobe of course, played bad in the second half of the season, ever heard of injuries? <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>A ankle injury sidelined Walton for 22 games and limited his leaping ability when he returned, but Luke was still a vital part of making the</div> yes, injuries can effect you after you have been cleared to play.Luke isn't the best defender but he sure the hell isn't a bad defender, Luke Walton is one of the most knoledgable and complete type of players in the league, he does everything on the court, he's always been known to do everything well but not overly great which is rare to find in players, plus he's great in triangle offense with Phil.I don't know what your talking about, the Lakers got a bargin in signing Luke Walton to this type of contract and im sure everyone would agree with me on that.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>That's because the whole entire lakers team with the exception of kobe of course, played bad in the second half of the season, ever heard of injuries?</div>How about no. Lamar played his heart out, he averaging something like 15/11/5 in the 2nd half of the season. The two starters who fell off in the 2nd half were Andrew Bynun and luke walton. Andrew got tired, luke's injury excuses are great but half of the team were suffering from injuries. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Luke isn't the best defender but he sure the hell isn't a bad defender, Luke Walton is one of the most knoledgable and complete type of players in the league, he does everything on the court, he's always been known to do everything well but not overly great which is rare to find in players, plus he's great in triangle offense with Phil.I don't know what your talking about, the Lakers got a bargin in signing Luke Walton to this type of contract and im sure everyone would agree with me on that.</div>Mate, I don't think you watch the lakers mutch. He is a matador defender, he is not quick enough, not strong enough, nor athletic enough to keep up with today's sf. In a team with an anchor and better defenders he could be hidden but with out already lackluster defense Luke is the glaring hole.Reading a couple of articles or reading some fans who have fetishes for certain players isn't going to give you cred. Anyone who watched the lakers in depth this season knows Luke is a role player and that's it. It'd be good if he was a role player who played defense but he doesn't.Oh, and if you are going to blame injuries look at this statsWorse, in the 8 games leading into his injury, he was shooting THIRTY TWO PERCENT (27/83) on his FG. Meanwhile, his opponents outscored him 134 to 69. Also, His per was 16 whilst his opponents Per were 17. The man gives up more than he produces (and he is lucky he doesn't have to defend against superstar sf or his PER would bw worse). Kobe, who's defense was atrocious this season had a +11 per advantage on his oponent. Lamar's PER was dead even at PF which is amazing seeing as how he is a tweener.So please don't try and prove to me something I've seen with my own eyes. The guy is a matador defender who is only good because he is in the triangle system. 2 months of playing good ball isn't worth the money he deserved.
You live in australia like myself and frankly the coverage is terrible this year. This season I watched over 50 games and downloaded others. I'm thinking the only footage you get to see is Foxtel's pathetic coverage. So please dont' lecture me. It's like me trying to argue about Memphis or Boston's players when I barely ever watch them play.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Melo061 @ Jul 2 2007, 07:00 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>How about no. Lamar played his heart out, he averaging something like 15/11/5 in the 2nd half of the season. The two starters who fell off in the 2nd half were Andrew Bynun and luke walton. Andrew got tired, luke's injury excuses are great but half of the team were suffering from injuries. Mate, I don't think you watch the lakers mutch. He is a matador defender, he is not quick enough, not strong enough, nor athletic enough to keep up with today's sf. In a team with an anchor and better defenders he could be hidden but with out already lackluster defense Luke is the glaring hole.Reading a couple of articles or reading some fans who have fetishes for certain players isn't going to give you cred. Anyone who watched the lakers in depth this season knows Luke is a role player and that's it. It'd be good if he was a role player who played defense but he doesn't.Oh, and if you are going to blame injuries look at this statsWorse, in the 8 games leading into his injury, he was shooting THIRTY TWO PERCENT (27/83) on his FG. Meanwhile, his opponents outscored him 134 to 69. Also, His per was 16 whilst his opponents Per were 17. The man gives up more than he produces (and he is lucky he doesn't have to defend against superstar sf or his PER would bw worse). Kobe, who's defense was atrocious this season had a +11 per advantage on his oponent. Lamar's PER was dead even at PF which is amazing seeing as how he is a tweener.So please don't try and prove to me something I've seen with my own eyes. The guy is a matador defender who is only good because he is in the triangle system. 2 months of playing good ball isn't worth the money he deserved.</div>First of all Odom sucked in the second half of the season, im really starting to question if you saw Odom play at the start of the season, the guy was playing 10x better, this was when the lakers were well above 500. and Odom is much to blame for that success. so I really don't know what your talkin about bro, now just because Lamar played with all his heart in the second half of the season, IT DOSEN'T mean he was always efficient on the court or played very well at all, this didn't help anyone and sure the hell didn't lead to wins, by saying all this it is clear now that you don't know jack about Lamar Odom, the dude was clearly still effected by that shoulder injury throughout the second half of the season and it showed, he didn't help the lakers, end of story! so don't bring Odom into this. I didn't say luke was a great defender nor did I say he was a bad defender, his footwork and his basketball IQ usally makes up for his un athletic ability, you are basically saying he can't defend anyone, which is an idiotic statement to make, you are terribly underrating his defensive capabilities still, he can guard a small foward like most average small fowards would, I mean come on.. he ain't that bad.So Luke Walton had a bad second half of the season as well? right? yes he did but by myself saying Luke Walton is one of the bright spots for the lakers in this past season meaning he's one of the guys who actually made a impact on each game the lakers played, so did many of the laker players but every laker fan knows luke is just going to bring it next season or when it's needed, you just know the guy is helping, the lakers didn't think twice in re-signing the guy, because they know he's worth every bit of it, you have to ignore the stats in this situation.<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Melo061 @ Jul 2 2007, 07:04 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>You live in australia like myself and frankly the coverage is terrible this year. This season I watched over 50 games and downloaded others. I'm thinking the only footage you get to see is Foxtel's pathetic coverage. So please dont' lecture me. It's like me trying to argue about Memphis or Boston's players when I barely ever watch them play.</div>I watch NBA Basketball on the Internet :happy0144: so shhhhhhhhhhh dood.
Luke Walton is a very smart player and very valuable in that offense. For a Lakers fan to berate him like that is sad. He wasn't the best player in the world and he didn't put up the greatest stats, but he stayed within his role and did whatever Jackson wanted him to. They need that kind of consistency in a player in that kind of offense especially in the midst of the Kobe situation, so the signing was not a bad thing at all.
Dude, it's getting really annoying. I watched every laker game in the first half, you obviously didn't because half of the games were not free on the internet. You at max watched 20 games because lakers were only on the net for about 30 games and alot of the came when you were at school. Tell me where you watched them...Lamar odom sucked? 15-10-5 on 50% shooting is not sucking, I'm sorry but it isn't. His post allstar stats were 17-9-5 on 45% shoooting. He had a great first month, that is when he was actually aggressive scoring wise but as he went on his scoring dipped through novermber and through 5 games of novermber he was averaging 13ppg.Lamar is much more than scoring or stats, you need to watch him to understand what the guy means. He outside of kobe and maybe luke are the only guys who can actually create and create for others. He frees up kobe to score and let's him move closer to the basket wher kobe is more effecient. Also, without him we get destroyed on the rebounds and we are even worse defensively. Lamar odom was certaintly not as agressive as he was in the first month of basketball but he was vital because he allowed kobe to free up to score. Without him, we get destroyed on the boards and we see more of brian cook which means you get killed on defense.<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>I didn't say luke was a great defender nor did I say he was a bad defender, his footwork and his basketball IQ usally makes up for his un athletic ability, you are basically saying he can't defend anyone, which is an idiotic statement to make, you are terribly underrating his defensive capabilities still, he can guard a small foward like most average small fowards would, I mean come on.. he ain't that bad.</div>Do you even play organised basketball?To be a great defensive team you needa) A shotblocking precenseb) Good man to man defendersc) Good team defense/ersd) A coach who stresses defenseSome teams have all of them ie the spurs whilst team like the cavs have a coach who stress the defense.The lakers are missing all of them. When you're missing all those key ingredients you can't hide players on defense. Luke is a decent team defender on a great defensive team who can help out but when you are on an atrocious defensive team you are exposed. That is what happened this season. Players kept on getting beaten and it caused our big men to get into foul trouble. You can get away with being unathletic aslong as your basketball smarts are good and you are quick. Luke's defensive smarts are not that great compared to his offensive game and he is slow and doesn't slide his feet well like a bruce bowen can.Answer this<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Worse, in the 8 games leading into his injury, he was shooting THIRTY TWO PERCENT (27/83) on his FG. Meanwhile, his opponents outscored him 134 to 69.</div>Yeh, it was the injuries that killed him. He was hitting the ground because he got injured nad probably would .have gotten worse.<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>So Luke Walton had a bad second half of the season as well? right? yes he did but by myself saying Luke Walton is one of the bright spots for the lakers in this past season meaning he's one of the guys who actually made a impact on each game the lakers played, so did many of the laker players but every laker fan knows luke is just going to bring it next season or when it's needed, you just know the guy is helping, the lakers didn't think twice in re-signing the guy, because they know he's worth every bit of it, you have to ignore the stats in this situation.</div>He was great for about a month and a half then he started regressing. His 3 point shooting disappeared, his defense got worse and his overall shooting got worse.Luke is what he is, a good system place, great passer but terrible defender. He is not worth that money and for 6 years because frankly if we get someone who plays defense he is going to the bench. He is our biggest flaw on defense.
