After yet another losing season and the Los Angeles Lakers continuing to rebuild, there’s a lot of reason for Luke Walton to be frustrated. In his first season as head coach, it was a big adjustment for the 37-year-old as he just came off a historic season with the Golden State Warriors, where they won 73 games in the regular season. When he joined the Lakers, the team only won 26 matches and finished with the third worst record in the league.

However, Walton is still optimistic that the team will soon be a winning group once again, especially with the work ethic he’s seeing from his players. With their offseason starting early again, some of them are continuing to work out in the Lakers’ practice facility to stay in shape and improve their game. The two-time NBA champion commended them, via the Full 48 podcast with Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck, and said that he knows they’ll have a successful future after witnessing the maturity his young core has been showing recently.

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“It’s a lot of fun, it really is. There’s obviously a lot of stress and frustration that can come with losing when you’re caught up in the moment, but we have a great group of young players and I don’t just mean that by like a great group of talented players. I mean like actual people and who they are and the way they work makes coaching so much fun because they’re coming in, we still have the playoffs going on and we’ve had six or seven guys in here pretty much every day Monday through Friday from May 15 until right now.”

“They want to get better, they work hard, they’re fun to be around. Even with the amount of losing that we did last year and, for a lot of these guys, the amount of losing they’ve done for the last couple years, there wasn’t ever any quit in them which, as coaches, we just love. They keep fighting, they want to be better and they enjoy playing basketball. That leads me to believe if we keep putting in the work and the time with these young guys that as they grow older and mature with those type of attitudes and those type of work habits they’re putting in…we’re going to have a successful future.”

The Lakers are one of the most successful franchises in NBA history and are now in a tough phase, as they try to contend for a championship, with young players and a new system in place. They have recently made changes in their front office personnel with the arrival of Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka, and with the second pick in the draft later this month, the L.A. faithful are hopeful these will be enough to produce more wins and even make it to the playoffs next season.