Luke Walton Articles - Page 2

Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton gave his rookie point guard Tyrese Haliburton the ultimate compliment on Friday. Walton said the 20-year-old playmaker possesses the “clutch gene,” shortly after he bailed the team out in their 126-124 win over the Toronto Raptors inside Amalie Arena. Luke Walton on Tyrese Haliburton who struggled shooting but hit […]

During Friday’s preseason matchup between the Sacramento Kings and Portland Trail Blazers, head coach Luke Walton briefly removed his mask to shout some instructions at his players on the floor. CJ McCollum, who was seated on the Portland bench, noticed Walton was temporarily mask-less and made sure the opposing coach knew about it. “Coach, put […]

Former New Orleans Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry is reportedly set to join Luke Walton’s staff on the Sacramento Kings, per Marc Stein of the New York Times. Gentry will be the Kings’ associate head coach. He was fired by the Pelicans after New Orleans missed the 2020 playoffs. The Kings are closing in on […]

Sacramento Kings shooting guard Buddy Hield is reportedly not answering head coach Luke Walton’s phone calls this offseason, but the team isn’t too concerned about it, per James Ham of NBC Sports California. The Kings supposedly understand that players can be distant from their organizations in the offseason. The franchise also knows that Hield is […]

Sacramento Kings shooting guard Buddy Hield has soured on head coach Luke Walton, per Jason Jones of The Athletic. Hield is not happy coming off the Kings’ bench and he hasn’t answered any of Walton’s phone calls. But for Hield, things have changed. According to league sources, Hield has soured on Walton to the point […]

The Sacramento Kings may have a new general manager in Monte McNair after Vlade Divac stepped down from the position, but it appears that the team’s commitment to their head coach will not change.  McNair himself announced that Luke Walton will still be the team’s head coach next season, according to Jason Jones of The […]

After an encouraging 39-win season in 2018-19, the Sacramento Kings were a young team on the rise with playoff intentions. But after a regrettable coaching change and obvious failed roster decisions, Sacramento is in a familiar place, trying to keep a star-type player happy and in a Kings jersey while the front office is influx. […]

Models of success and failure are often repeated in professional sports. On Saturday, the New Orleans Pelicans copied a grave mistake made by the Sacramento Kings in 2019, firing their head coach after a season when his team made noteworthy progress. Firing Dave Joerger has yielded poor results for the Kings The Kings went 27-55 […]

Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton is reportedly safe from getting fired despite general manager Vlade Divac shockingly stepping down on Friday, per Sam Amick of The Athletic. Walton just completed his first season with the Kings. The team went 31-41 and missed the playoffs for the 14th straight year. Source also tells @TheAthleticNBA that […]

With plenty of teams looking to claim that eighth and final spot in the West, Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton has been keeping a positive mindset, believing that his team still has a chance to qualify for the playoffs. The Kings notched their first victory in the bubble on Thursday against the New Orleans […]

Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton has been around the game of basketball for a long time. However, even he can’t understand how the Dallas Mavericks shot 50 free-throws against his squad on Tuesday. The Grizzlies did shoot 50 free throws in a game last week, it should be noted. But when this was followed […]

With Harrison Barnes recently testing positive for COVID-19, the 6-foot-8 swingman is expected to miss the Sacramento Kings’ lead up to the season restart on July 30. This has placed the Kings in a significant dilemma, and head coach Luke Walton himself has addressed the issue. According to Walton, they do not have any intentions […]

There’s one big criticism the NBA receives with regards to the upcoming season restart. The NBA could potentially serve as a distraction from the bigger socio-political issues at hand. For his part, Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton believes it’s up to the teams to make sure that’s not the case. Speaking to Jason Jones […]

Sacramento Kings sophomore Marvin Bagley III has missed majority of the 2019-20 season due to a foot injury. However, he will reportedly join the team when the season resumes later this month. According to Jason Jones of The Athletic, Kings coach Luke Walton said the former no.2 overall pick has looked good in their workouts, […]

New Orleans Pelicans guard Lonzo Ball was having arguably the best year of his career prior to the season hiatus. The move to New Orleans over the summer seems to have worked wonders for Ball, as he has found a new sense of freedom playing for head coach Alvin Gentry. In the mind of his […]

During the Los Angeles Lakers’ run of dominance between 2008 and 2010, forward Pau Gasol played a pivotal role in the team’s success. The team acquired Gasol in a blockbuster trade with the Memphis Grizzlies in February of 2008, and the team was off and running as a legitimate title contender once again. Gasol proved […]

Vlade Divac and Luke Walton are “very likely to remain” in their current positions with the Sacramento Kings next season, per Sam Amick of The Athletic. Divac is the Kings’ general manager while Walton is the head coach. Both men are signed through the 2022-23 season. Kings owner Vivek Ranadive had expressed frustration with Divac […]

Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton has been intently watching ESPN’s docuseries “The Last Dance,” which has sparked plenty of uncanny similarities between Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. Walton, who played with Bryant as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, noted how passages of each episode of the series reflect how similar the two […]

Being one of the best players in the NBA today, one narrative that has unfortunately hounded Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James for pretty much majority of his career is his alleged (over) influence on his teams’ front offices, including his stop with the Miami Heat. During his time with the Heat — especially before […]

Sacramento Kings shooting guard Buddy Hield watched the entire fourth quarter of Sunday’s game against the Toronto Raptors from the bench. Having been moved into a sixth-man role earlier this year, Hield was still finishing games as one of the Kings’ best shooting options, but Luke Walton still opted to leave him out as the […]

Even head coaches aren’t exempt from some heckling. That is proven true when a fan in the recent Sacramento Kings-Toronto Raptors matchup shouted angrily at head coach Luke Walton. Sacramento was down three with 13.7 seconds left on the clock, but the fan turned livid when Walton kept Buddy Hield — the reigning 3-Point champion […]

Against the Washington Wizards on Tuesday, Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton furiously protested at the referees after seemingly missing a call. The officials, however, weren’t having any of it and ejected Walton. As seen in the clip below, Walton did not waste any time protesting to the referees. Walton was so angry that he […]

Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton says when you watch film of Washington Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal, you see a lot of things which Houston Rockets MVP James Harden does. Harden and Beal are universally recognized as the two best shooting guards in the NBA: Luke Walton on Bradley Beal: “You watch film on […]

The Sacramento Kings suffered another blowout defeat on Wednesday, falling 130-111 to Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks. It was a frustrating evening for the Kings, and at one point, head coach Luke Walton got in on the action. Walton was arguing a call during the third quarter, and with the 39-year-old coach unable to […]

As the game between the Sacramento Kings and Dallas Mavericks began winding down, fans at the American Airlines Center and throughout the NBA landscape noticed Luke Walton and Luka Doncic have an exchange. From the visual aspect, it seemed like the coach and the opposing star player were throwing barbs towards each other. However, the […]

Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic and Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton got into a semi-heated exchange in Wednesday’s duel. After the game, the Mavs youngster revealed that Walton told him something that he didn’t like. Welcome back, Luka!@luka7doncic meets with @SkinWade after a triumphant 33 pt return!#MFFL pic.twitter.com/wJLpj2W2TL — Bally Sports Southwest (@BallySportsSW) February […]

The Sacramento Kings were expected by many to be a sleeper playoff contender (and potentially a playoff team) in the Western Conference this season. I was leading that charge. After an impressive 2018-19 campaign in which the Kings actually contended for a playoff spot for much of the season thanks to the inspired play of […]

Frustration is beginning to mount within the Kings’ ownership ranks, as Vivek Ranadive and others within the group are not happy with the way the season has gone thus far. According to a report from The Athletic, Ranadive has conveyed his frustration in a variety of ways: Sources say Ranadive has shared his frustration with […]

Sacramento Kings general manager Vlade Divac still has faith in head coach Luke Walton as he continues to navigate an injury-riddled roster in his first season manning the Kings bench. Divac–who hired Walton after firing former head coach Dave Joerger last summer–said he and Walton are “one the same page” with respect to the direction […]

Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton benched Buddy Hield for Bogdan Bogdanovic on Friday, but it’s not going to be a “permanent” thing. The Kings defeated the Chicago Bulls on Friday. Hield scored 21 points off the bench: “It’s not a permanent thing,” Luke Walton said, via ESPN. “We’ll see how this goes and move […]

Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton made a polarizing move on Friday. Walton benched rising star shooting guard Buddy Hield in favor of third-year wing Bogdan Bogdanovic in the starting lineup for the team’s Friday night matchup with the Chicago Bulls. The Kings coach called the starting unit shakeup not a punishment for the 27-year-old […]

Outside of the Detroit Pistons struggling to gain traction on an Andre Drummond trade, and Kyle Kuzma having a murky future with the Los Angeles Lakers, there’s minimal buzz leading up to the NBA trade deadline. Bummer. On the other hand, there are several head coaches who are — or could be — on the […]

The Sacramento Kings are struggling to keep a full-strength roster together as a lot of the key players are injured. Fortunately, it seems like Marvin Bagley III will be available sooner rather than later for Luke Walton. The former Los Angeles Lakers head coach revealed to Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee that he expects […]

The Sacramento Kings recently snapped an eight-game losing streak by coming out victorious in a matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies at the Golden 1 Center. De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield led the team as expected but Bogdan Bogdanovic was a significant contributor off the bench before he was sidelined with an injury. Sean Cunningham of […]

Dewayne Dedmon publicly confirmed he would like to be traded from the Sacramento Kings, but Kings head coach Luke Walton said as recently as last Friday “he hasn’t made that clear to me.” Demon signed a three-year, $40 million contract with the Kings this past offseason, but he has fallen out of Walton’s rotation. “He […]

Sacramento Kings guard Buddy Hield had a hard time containing his emotions following the team’s double-overtime loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night. Hield hinted at an absence of chemistry and a host of issues in the locker room during his postgame interview. “It seems like we’re all over the place, the coaches and […]

Sacramento Kings shooting guard Buddy Hield let his frustrations out after the team suffered a 105-104 double-overtime loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday. Hield was benched in the fourth quarter of the game by head coach Luke Walton. In Hield’s rant, the fourth-year pro lamented that he disagreed with Walton’s decision to bench him. […]

Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton recently had some seriously high praise for up-and-coming forward Marvin Bagley III. Not only did Walton compliment the young big man, but he even compared his to the reigning league MVP in Milwaukee Bucks superstar swingman Giannis Antetokounmpo. One knock on both Bagley III and “The Greek Freak,” though, […]

Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton told reporters that he would have no further comment after news broke that a lawsuit against accusing him of sexual assault was dropped on Thursday: Statement from Sacramento Kings Head Coach Luke Walton upon news the civil suit for sexual harassment is being dropped: “I remain 100 percent focused […]