With the Los Angeles Lakers tanking in order to secure their top-three pick in the upcoming draft, head coach Luke Walton is left with quite a predicament.
He needs to keep his players motivated to end the season on a high note, while also keeping in mind that the team will need to lose as many games as possible in order to improve their chances in the lottery.
Despite this being his rookie year as a head coach, the 36-year-old has a lot of experience under his belt, both as a player and as an assistant coach, that will surely help him in the dilemma he is currently in.
In a recent interview, Walton acknowledged the challenge of keeping players on their toes at this point in the season, regardless of being a playoff-contending team or not.
“When you’re on a playoff team, it’s about getting sharp. Your messaging and reasoning for coming to those games is really locking in and getting your game to where it needs to be to start the playoffs. That’s obviously not the purpose and reasoning we have right now,” Walton explained as per Corey Hanford of Lakers Nation. “For us, it’s all about building momentum into the offseason. We want to end on a positive note. We want to be excited to go into the offseason and work and everyone gets better.”
The Lakers' roster is packed with young and inexperienced talents and it would be very easy for them to get discouraged with the team’s current standing. However, Walton understands how crucial this last stretch is in terms of keeping his players hungry and motivated entering the offseason. He will definitely be doing everything in his power to get his message across.
The good news for the team is that this does not need to translate to wins. The Lakers will just need to play with passion and put in the necessary hard work in their remaining 11 contests with the final score being just an afterthought.
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