Podcast: What must Luke Walton do to get the Lakers locker room on the same page?

To start today’s Locked on Lakers, Pete and I take a closer look at some of the tweaks he’s noticed in Lonzo Ball’s shot. From there, we steer back to some aspects of the conversation regarding Luke Walton that Bill Oram and I didn’t hit on the last episode. This was a fun show.

Let’s start with Lonzo’s shot. As long as this offseason has dragged, there simply wasn’t enough time (especially when you count his injury recovery time) to make sweeping changes to his jumper. There are minor tweaks, sure, but it’s hard to imagine much beyond that.

Where his shot might actually improve beyond some of those minor tweaks will probably have more to do with his strength and conditioning, which are bound to improve with a full NBA season under his belt and more time with the Lakers’ training staff.

Still, any legitimate improvements there are going to hugely welcomed so long as he shares the court with LeBron James.

In segments two and three, we focus back on Walton and, specifically his communication skills with guys who have various standings in the organization. Oram and I spoke at length about how Luke has handled past situations and while that can improve, there are other factors to consider. Pete and I touch on those.

From there, we take a look at some more tactically-based improvements (for lack of a better term) that we’d like to see. Pete’s was really interesting and has more to do with continued development within the players executing his system. I focused more on the system itself, which will be really interesting to keep an eye on.

Walton prefers a more free-wheeling system, but that isn’t necessarily how LeBron likes to play. Some balance is going to have to be found there, and communication will play a key role in figuring out how that might look.

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 on iTunes.