Podcast: No, the Lakers should not fire Luke Walton after seven games

In a crossover podcast event, Harrison and I discussed the Los Angeles Lakers after yet another tough loss — this time at the scorching, red-hot hands of Jimmy Butler and the Minnesota Timberwolves. We start by discussing the game specifically on Locked on Lakers, then broaden the scope on this week’s episode of “The Lake Show.”

Let’s start with the latest in an annoyingly long line of close losses.

The focus for many watching Monday night’s game will obviously be the weird starting lineup. In theory, Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, LeBron James and JaVale McGee might work at some point down the line. You have multiple creators (something James has reportedly wanted), finishers, and switchability on defense.

Still, the fact that Kuzma has now been asked to guard centers, shooting guards and everyone in-between kind of speaks to some of the roster’s flaws. Luke Walton is trying all kinds of stuff to try to make that work, but at the end of the day, the team has was put in charge of is by no means one without its own inherent question marks.

In part one of the crossover pod, we also discuss Ball just kind of floating through both games he’s played in since being award the starting point guard gig, lineup choices, the context under which the Lakers have lost these games and plenty more.

For the second half of our conversation, Harrison and I discuss Walton specifically, and how ridiculous it is that people out there are calling for him to lose his job after a slow start that literally everyone worth listening to predicted. And it isn’t like the Lakers are losing handily to inferior teams.

You also have to ask yourself who exactly would replace Walton if the Lakers did indeed fire him. The list of candidates isn’t great, and that would set back the process of this team coming together even further — without the guarantee of whoever they hire being better than Walton, himself.

We would have been remiss not to mention LeBron’s quote about patience that lit Twitter on fire for most of the night. Of course he’s frustrated. It would be an even bigger disaster if he was okay with the Lakers’ five losses to this point.

As always, this is just a tidbit of the full context given in the show. Listen to the full discussion below and please check out old episodes, or guarantee you won’t miss any ever again by subscribing to either “The Silver Screen and Roll Podcast” or “Locked on Lakers” on iTunes.