According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, and who better, the Sacramento Kings have officially offered Luke Walton their vacant head coaching position. Woj is seldom wrong about these things, so when he says, "there’s confidence on both sides that a deal can be reached quickly" you'd be unwise to holdout for a second opinion on the Kings' coaching options.
As you know, Luke Walton endured a trying season in 2018-2019 with the domineering presence of LeBron James always too close for comfort. In fact, it could be argued that Walton was never going to be a longterm seeing as he wasn't LeBron's "guy bro" for the job. And secondly, it's safe to assume Pelinka and Magic Johnson had some reservations about his cultural fit, even though they stated otherwise at the beginning of the season.
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At this point, Walton would be stupid not to invest his future on a "coachable" roster full of players with plenty of upside: Fox, Bagley, and Giles are names that come to mind almost immediately. The Lakers, on the other hand, are believed to be eyeing Tyronn Lue as his replacement, which in turn, would all but solidify LeBron's grip on the steering wheel moving forward. Lue is, after all, one of LeBron's "guy bros," is he not?
Walton and Vlade Divac will be meeting sometime this weekend to iron out the details. In the meantime, why not relive this narrated highlight reel of Luke Walton reliving his exploits in Game 3 of the 2008 NBA Finals. As history would have it, Walton's corner threes and spirited encouragement from the bench weren't enough to prevent the Celtics Big 3 from winning their lone NBA Championship.
