Ben Rohrbach,Yahoo Sports•April 12, 2019

Luke Walton fell victim to unreasonable expectations.

Despite (mostly) steady annual improvement since a franchise-worst 17 wins in 2015-16, save for this drama-filled and injury-riddled campaign, the Los Angeles Lakers parted ways with Walton Friday following his third season at the helm and first directing LeBron James, calling it a mutual agreement in the press release.

The 38-year-old posted a 98-148 record at the command of the Lakers, but the first-time head coach’s lack of success in L.A. is far more nuanced than that.

Walton inherited a team that was ripped to the studs by Kobe Bryant's retirement tour and propped up by a pair of the NBA's worst contracts — Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov, one of whom is still cashing checks not to play for the Lakers and the other of whom cost them their No. 2 pick from 2015 in a salary dump. Starless and cap-strapped is not the best starting point, but Walton built the crop of draft picks who followed into a team attractive enough to lure LeBron to Los Angeles.

LeBron's arrival, along with the hirings of Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka to run the front office, came with playoff — and title — expectations. This, despite the fact that Johnson and Pelinka put their team-building effort on hold until 2019 by signing a cast of characters to one-year deals. There was every reason to believe the piecemeal Lakers would start slow and struggle to challenge the Western Conference elite at the jump, so naturally Johnson admonished Walton for both his offensive and defensive schemes in a meeting eight games into the season.

All that said, Walton's Lakers were in fourth place, two losses out of the No. 2 seed, when LeBron suffered a groin injury on Christmas that cost him three weeks and lingered until he was shut down for good. Season-ending injuries to Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram also followed. The Lakers predictably fell out of the playoff picture. The team also engaged in trade talks with the New Orleans Pelicans to acquire Anthony Davis that included half the roster and ultimately failed. Even the Lakers concede this created a chemistry problem that contributed to the team’s tailspin.

None of this was Walton's fault. You can only accomplish so much when your front office hands you a star, demolishes the locker room, and that star strains his groin.

Meanwhile, Walton's name will appear in every other coaching search around the NBA. The 39-year-old’s résumé includes a 39-4 start as interim coach of the Golden State Warriors during their 73-win 2015-16 campaign. There have been offensive struggles in L.A., for sure, but the Lakers' dearth of 3-point shooters in an era when that shot has taken hold did not do Walton any favors. The Lakers' defense under Walton improved from dead last in Year 1 to 13th in Year 2 and top-10 this season before the late-season landslide. That is the sort of year-over-year growth most rebuilding teams would like to see from a young roster.