LAKER ROSTER: Luke Walton
Let me start off by saying that a healthy Luke Walton is a productive Luke Walton. He has good fundamentals, whether from his time at Arizona or being schooled by his father and brothers. He is the type of player that works well in the designs of the triangle offense because he has a pass the ball, team first mentality that is really the basis of the triangle. Move the ball continuously until you have a high percentage shot. I hadn’t realized, until starting to work on this, that he had the fewest games played and lowest point total for the Lakers last season. He was also next to last in minutes played (Hello, Adam Morrison!) The Lakers have many options at the small forward position. Ron Artest will be the starter, and Matt Barnes (hopefully), Lamar Odom, Devin Ebanks and Kobe could all play minutes as needed. Given that Luke is 30 and has averaged approximately 60 games a season over his 7 year career, it’s probably a good thing for the Lakers to have choices. Luke stated that his focus during the off-season was to get his back stronger and healthier, and he work with a strengthening coach, a back specialist, a yoga teacher and a pilates instructor. So ideally he will be in top form at the beginning of the season. I don’t think he was too happy about being limited to 29 games last year due to his back problems. I expect that should he have health or injury issues this season and miss half a season again, he will decide he’s played enough, made enough money, and has as many rings as Pops (1 of 3 father/son combos). Rumor has it that he was considering retirement already, and like Yao Ming, if he can’t stay healthy, then he’ll be gone. For more on Luke’s summer, visit Lakers.com
http://my.lakers.com/blogs/2010/09/03/luke-walton-summer-update/