（原标题：How Hot Is Luke Walton’s Hot Seat?，原文作者：John Gonzalez，翻译：莫子豪）

前言：洛杉矶湖人今天101-86战胜了萨克拉门托国王队，湖人收获2连胜的同时，球队胜率首次达到了五成，如今，卢克-沃顿的帅位是否还热乎？唯彩看球带您一起从本文中深剖湖人帅位的泡沫剧。

Magic Johnson has said that the Lakers coach is safe this season … provided nothing “drastic” happens. As the Lakers take one step forward and two steps back, questions are arising: What exactly does “drastic” mean? How does LeBron James’s addition increase the scrutiny on the head coach? And who made this mess in the first place?

魔术师约翰逊表示，假如没有“突发状况”话，这个赛季卢克沃顿无需担心他的帅位。但湖人踉踉跄跄的开局情况，导致问题也就随之而来：魔术师所谓的“突发状况”到底是什么？詹皇的加入会怎么影响湖人主教练的席位？还有到底是谁造成了现在一团糟的局面？

Votes of confidence can be tricky stuff. Timing matters. So does controlling the message. A little luck never hurts either. None of those things worked out the way the Lakers probably hoped this past weekend.

魔术师对卢克所谓的“信任”是非常的微妙的。他这番发言出现的时间点非常巧妙，对这则讯息的把控也是非常有考究的。一点运气对以上二者的把控皆有所帮助。然而上周事态却并没有如湖人之意。

Following an ESPN report that president of basketball operations Magic Johnson rapped head coach Luke Walton on the knuckles for the team’s slow start, the Lakers spent much of last week addressing the story and Woj’s underlying interpretation that “the pressure’s on the coach to win sooner than later.” There were other reports that, during the heated meeting, Johnson wanted to see an offensive system that “had yet to be implemented” and might also want “a more experienced staff” installed. (Consume all the grains of salt when considering the source on the potential coaching staff changes.) With a storm swirling, the Lakers somehow beat the Blazers in Portland on Saturday, something they hadn’t done in nearly five years. That seemed to momentarily depressurize the situation and drop the drama barometer.

据ESPN报道，湖人的篮球运营总监魔术师约翰逊就湖人慢热的开局严厉地训斥了总教练卢克沃顿。同时，湖人上周也为这件事以及Woj发推特所谓的“魔术师施压沃顿，必须尽快赢球”问题费了一番周折。另一些报道则表明，在这次被媒体炒得越来越火的谈话中，魔术师希望看见队伍“仍未实行”的进攻体系，同时希望一个“更有经验的教练组人员”加入。（考虑到关于潜在的教练组人员变动的信息，很多不可靠消息已经被过滤）风雨飘摇中，湖人却在上周六意外地完成了近五年来对开拓者的首胜。这场胜利也让湖人在高压环境中暂时缓了一口气，没有让这出“大戏”出现变故。

For someone who was supposed to be a dead man walking, Walton appeared lively enough when the Lakers returned to Los Angeles on Sunday to host the Toronto Raptors for the second leg of their brutally timed back-to-back. He smirked and smiled his way through the pregame media session, insisting that the leak about Johnson lecturing him “doesn’t change what I’m doing as far as coaching this team and coaching the players. It doesn’t influence that at all.” LeBron James also weighed in—because how could he not?—and praised the coaching staff for “[putting] us in a position to win” in Portland.

就在很多人认为沃顿应该如行尸走肉一般无精打采时，沃顿却如同满血复活一般出现在周六湖人主场对战多伦多猛龙的比赛现场，去支撑球队渡过艰难的背靠背比赛。他在下赛前的媒体采访时间里，表现得一如既往，他带着颇有些“自信”地微笑表示，“（我被魔术师斥责的）谈话的泄露，没有暂时没有改变我执教湖人队以及球员的方式。真的一点影响都没有。”勒布朗詹姆斯也对卢克表示支持，因为他相信卢克肯定可以带队前进，同时赞美了沃顿在对开拓者的胜利中让湖人球员“处于一个有优势的位置”。

“Luke can care less about what’s going on outside,” James said. “We could as well. I’m the last person to ask about scrutiny or anything of that nature.”

“卢克无需为外界的传闻过分困扰”詹姆斯说，“我们球员也是一样。我会是最后一个对卢克的执教方式或其他方面发出质疑的人。”

David Blatt and a host of discarded former teammates might have pushed back on that, but LeBron and the Lakers were clearly trying to present a unified front coming off the Blazers win. Which meant the front office had two options: say nothing and let Walton twist while the story lingered, or attempt to walk it back a bit with some careful choreography. The Lakers, or at least Johnson, went with the latter.

或许是大卫布拉特跟一些（因勒布朗）被解雇的制服组成员在这件事的背后推波助澜，但在打败开拓者之后，勒布朗跟湖人队明显在尽可能地表现得团结一致。这意味着管理层有两个选择：1. 在谣言四起的情况下继续让沃顿按他的方式执教，不作发言。2. 有计划地让事态缓和下来。且不说整个湖人管理层，至少魔术师选择了后者。

Not long before tipoff against the Raptors, three Los Angeles Times reporters cornered Magic in the tunnel that leads to the Staples Center court near the Lakers locker room. Johnson could have spoken off the record or not at all, but instead he gave the journos exactly what they were looking for: his thoughts on the palace intrigue. That wasn’t an accident. That was a calculation.

在对阵猛龙队的比赛开始之前，三个洛杉矶时报的记者把魔术师拉到了通往球场的通道里，在靠着湖人队更衣室的一个角落里谈话。魔术师本可以在这个情况下私下说一些话，又或者选择什么都不透漏。但魔术师却选择了给出记者们一直想要的，关于这出闹剧的信息。而他做的这一切并不是偶然的，而是有计划有预谋的。

Though Johnson and the Los Angeles Times crew were out of earshot, my guess is that Magic delivered the “I said it, Luke took it, and we’re all good” line with the usual pleasant, Mr. Rogers, won’t-you-be-my-neighbor good humor that he is famous for. The man is charming. And if he didn’t want to be charming and had a different message in mind, he surely wouldn’t have stopped to chat in such a public location, right before a big game, where any idiot [Raises hand.] might wander by and witness the exchange. You have to understand that executives are visible and available when they want to be, and something closer to apparitions when they don’t. If they’re standing on the court while players hoist shots before tipoff—or, in Magic’s case, suddenly materializing in a hallway trafficked by journalists right after pregame media availability—there’s a good chance you can pull them off to the side to talk. Or, in this specific instance, that a certain Lakers president planned to be pulled off to the side for that express purpose.

尽管魔术师与洛杉矶时报记者们的交谈并无他人听到，我的猜测是，魔术师同平日一样轻松愉快地向记者们传达了“我是这么说了，卢克也接受了我的说法，我们之间并无大碍”的信息。毕竟众所周知，魔术是本人非常幽默有趣（注：Mr. Rogers, won’t-you-be-my-neighbor的出处是一档PBS的儿童节目Mr. Rogers’ Neighbor，罗杰斯先生其实为人友善，会是非常好的邻居，此处是为了突显魔术师的幽默）魔术师本人也非常的具有人格魅力。假如他不是要表现得幽默而是有别的想法要表达，他肯定不会在这样一个公共场合驻足谈论，而且也不会在湖人主场作战猛龙这么一场重要比赛前做这种事情。毕竟这场合会有不少听风就是雨的“记者朋友”到处瞎逛，很可能会被记者们逮个正着。你要明白，只有在球队的管理层在他们想公开露面的时候，记者们才可以找到他们，如果他们不想露面，他们几乎就像幽灵一样难以接近。假如这些管理层赛前就在场边站着，或者是像魔术是一样，在球员通道的半路上突然出现，然后在赛前接受采访中，且愿意被记者们围个水泄不通，这就是你（记者）把他们拉到一旁交流的机会了。当然，还有特殊情况会像魔术师这样，有计划有预谋的“被”你拉到一旁去表达他传达的信息。

The scene had all the makings of preplanned propaganda. Indeed, in an ensuing column about how it unfolded, Bill Plaschke revealed the interview wasn’t scheduled and Johnson “clearly wanted to send a message” through the Times.

这些“情景”恰好是他们计划中的宣传的第一步。（have all the makings of意思是具备了成为…的必要条件）不出所料，在一个紧随而来的专栏中解释了这场谈话是怎么展开的，Bill Plaschke（比尔·普拉斯克）透漏，这场采访并非是计划中的，而魔术师明显是想透过洛杉矶时报传达他的信息。

In a jconversation with me, @taniaganguli and @BA_Turner tonight, Magic Johnson said Luke Walton's job is safe -- "He is going to finish the season, unless something drastic happens, which it won't.''

（推特大意，在魔术师跟我们几个的谈话中，他表示这个赛季卢克沃顿的帅位是稳固的，只有在“特殊情况”下他才会被开除）

But if the ultimate takeaway was intended to be that Walton’s job security was not in question, then Johnson botched part of the rollout. For starters, and forgive my cynicism, the year ends in December—but the regular season runs through April. Beyond that, just 10 minutes after the first Times tweet, there was another that added important context.

但如果那番言论最终只是想要表达的是沃顿不会被解雇，那恐怕魔术师计划中的一部分是失算了。首先，请原谅我小人之心，十二月就是一年的结束了，而常规赛却要进行到次年四月份。此外，就在洛杉矶时报发出第一条推特后的十分钟后，另一条推特为第一条增添了重要的语境。

The “unless something drastic happens” component was also relayed in the full Times story and is the sort of Shaq-sized caveat that presents all kinds of future wiggle room for the Lakers front office. As votes of confidence go, it wasn’t exactly unassailable. And then there was the timing. Right after the “all good” declaration, the Lakers got ruined by the Raptors. The final score made the proceedings look closer than they were, and they weren’t close at all. Making matters worse, Kawhi Leonard didn’t even play. The optics were ugly. Maybe that doesn’t qualify as “something drastic,” but it was enough to make the massive media assembly look at each other sideways and whisper about Walton’s job security all over again.

“除非出现特殊情况”这一部分同样出现在了前一天洛杉矶时报的报道中，而这样的提前警告又为未来管理层的处理留出了空间。尽管球员们对沃顿表示出了信任，但是这种“信任”并非完全坚不可破的。然后我们来谈谈“时机”，就在魔术师做完“我们关系并无大碍”的发言之后，湖人就被猛龙蹂躏了。最后的赛果让湖人看起来就比赛中没被猛龙蹂躏，但事实上湖人就是被猛龙胖揍了一顿。而让事情更糟糕的是，伦纳德都没有打这场比赛。这样的结果是令人难受的。也许这样的惨败并不能被称作“突发状况”，但这已经足以让媒体在一旁再次交头接耳地谈论沃顿饭碗不保的问题了。

This is a story of the Lakers’ making, and it isn’t going away anytime soon. There are just too many people circling the team these days. There were so many local and national reporters in the Lakers locker room after the Raptors loss that the crowd around LeBron was four and five deep. From my spot waaaaay in the back, I could make out the ice bags wrapped around James’s right knee, his feet submerged in a giant ice tub, and a portion of a towel. Nothing more. Through the crush of bodies, I heard his faint voice admit that Toronto “came out and hit us right in the mouth.” James said he tries to stay “even-keeled” about these things and cautioned that a bad month can round into “a great month or two.”

这就是湖人面临的情况，而且短时间内这个情况也不会得到解决。这些日子有太多的目光注视着这支队伍了。就在他们输给猛龙之后，洛杉矶乃至国家级媒体的记者们挤在湖人更衣室里给勒布朗詹姆斯围了好几圈。而我就站在夸张的“围攻圈”之外，可以看见詹姆斯右膝盖绑着冰袋，他的脚则浸泡在一个大冰桶里，部分还盖着毛巾。除此之外什么也看不到了。他平静的声音从熙熙攘攘的人群中传出来，他承认“猛龙队赢得了比赛且把我们打得无言以对”。詹姆斯告诉媒体他会尝试对这些事情保持平常心，接着表示他会尝试着让球队在接下来的赛程中扭转现在出师不利的局面。

“You never let the outside noise get to you,” James cautioned. “You do that, that can cause problems.”

“永远别让外界的声音干扰你”詹姆斯补充道，“如果你被干扰到了，那会导致更多的问题。”

These are the Lakers. The outside noise isn’t going anywhere. That’s why the “nothing to see here, move along” strategy never works for them. There’s always something to see here, and why would any of us keep it moving when another plot line—new or recycled—is likely to present itself at any second? And with the dysfunctional Timberwolves coming to Los Angeles on Wednesday, the circus will only balloon. I can already hear anti-Lakers Twitter groaning.

然而湖人就是这样，外界的流言蜚语永远不会远去。这也是“没什么热闹可看的，赶紧走吧”之类的借口无将媒体敷衍过去的原因。这里总有热闹可看的，无论新旧，每分每秒，这里总会发生故事的，那我们媒体又怎么会挪开视线呢？周三晚上同样处在困境的森林狼将作客洛杉矶，这只会让事情更加引人注目。我几乎已经听到了推特上湖人黑子们的碎碎念了。

That’s the thing with the Lakers—they’re a moment-to-moment team with a built-in recency bias. Whatever happened last is what will dominate the conversation next. They are 4-6 through 10 games, and the story lines have oscillated in accordance with their record. A win in Portland meant Walton’s seat is safe; a bad loss to the Raptors means it might not be. (Imagine where we’d be if they had blown a big lead to the Blazers and lost, which almost happened.) Check in after the Minnesota game for the latest narrative. That’s the way it goes and the way it will continue.

湖人的现实情况就是这样的，伴随“根深蒂固”却又因时而变的偏见，队伍的风评总是在不停的变化。前一秒发生的事情就会让下一秒的言论甚嚣尘上。开赛以来，湖人的战绩是4胜6负，言论也会随着他们的战绩而发生变动。一场对开拓者队的胜利就会让人们说沃顿的帅位稳如泰山，一场对猛龙的失利也许就会让沃顿“帅位不保”。（想象一下，假如湖人在大比分领先开拓者的情况下最后被翻盘，而这还差点发生了，我们的言论会是怎么样的）且让我们看看对阵森林狼队的比赛会怎么样吧。这就是我们看待湖人的方式，而这种方式还会继续下去。

Meanwhile, we don’t have to wonder too hard about what the Lakers brass believes this team, as currently constituted, can reasonably achieve. The Johnson-Walton confab wasn’t just a warning shot, it was a tell. Any suggestion of patience by Magic and the front office was just a pump fake. What the Lakers want is what they’ve always wanted: to dunk on the rest of the league.

同时我们也不需要费脑子去想湖人管理层对队伍的看法，就现状继续下去的话，我们很容易就可以猜到了。魔术师跟沃顿之间的会谈不仅仅是一次警告，而是一次宣告。所谓魔术师跟管理层耐心的建议不过只是虚晃一枪而已。湖人的目标还是他们一直以来想要的：重回夺冠行列。

Rob Pelinka told a story. It got a good reaction in the room. This was a few days before the Lakers opened training camp. The story went like this: The Lakers general manager said he and Johnson were up in the office at the team training facility in El Segundo one afternoon “going over some training camp stuff.” He didn’t specify exactly what stuff, but that was less important than the conclusion they reached while going over said stuff.

罗布佩林卡说了一个故事。这个故事在更衣室反响不错。这件事发生在湖人训练营开始之前的几天。故事是这样的：湖人的总经理说他跟魔术师会在某个下午去位于埃尔塞贡多团队训练基地“商量一些训练营的事情。”他没有说明具体商量的事宜，但他们在商议事情中一致达成的结论比他们商议的事情重要得多。

“A lot of people have said, ‘Hey, this is one of the deepest rosters in the NBA,’ and that is an extreme strength to us,” Pelinka said. “If you look at the road to winning a championship, there’s obviously a dominant team that’s been in the Finals the last four years and won three. And you have no shot of beating them unless you’re deep, and you can keep coming at them in waves. And so, that’s an extreme strength for us.”

“很多人说，‘喂，你们这是NBA阵容深度最好的队伍之一啊’而这也是我们强大的地方”佩林卡说道。“你往争冠之路瞧一眼，马上就可以看见一只具有统治力的队伍，这支队伍已经连着四年进了总决赛还拿了三个总冠军。你的阵容深度不够的话，打败他们根本无从谈起，而我们阵容的深度可以让我们一直去挑战他们。这也是我们强大的地方”

There was serious chatter thereafter among fellow reporters about Pelinka’s declaration that “a lot of people have said” the Lakers have “one of the deepest rosters in the NBA.” While snarky NBA fans mocked the Meme Team, Pelinka looked at his cast of characters and, before they’d played a second of meaningful basketball together, saw strength. Extreme strength.

在这之后，记者朋友们就佩林卡的“很多人说…”做了认真的讨论。同时一些尖刻的NBA球迷也对湖人进行了一番嘲讽，认为卡佩林在队伍还没一起打出过一秒有意义的比赛前，光看着球员名单就能看出强处，还是极强之处，是非常可笑的。

That statement probably should have told us all we needed to know about the organization’s supersize aspirations. Even when the Lakers have struggled, periodically prompting LeBron to call the season “a process” and say he knew what he got himself into, it never felt like the front office was content with a gradual transition.

佩林卡这番宣言中，我们应该看到的是湖人极大的抱负。即使湖人仍在挣扎，勒布朗也暂且因现状将这赛季称为“一个过程”并表明自己很清楚他现在处在怎么样的情况中，但是湖人管理层并未满足于这样的慢热转变。

Pelinka and Johnson didn’t so much hint at their desire to fast break into the future so much as shout it. Magic said they constructed the roster “based on what we saw in the playoffs”—indicating he thought this team is capable of making the postseason. Pelinka and Johnson really like their team and have from the very beginning.

佩林卡跟魔术师并未表露出多少要快速进入预想状态的欲望，远不像他们宣称的那样。魔术师说他们去构建这一份球员名单的时候，是以“我们在季后赛赛场上看到的”为基准的。这也表明，他认为这支湖人是可以闯进季后赛的。佩林卡跟魔术师是真的喜欢他们的队伍的，而且两人早就是如此喜爱了。

Various media outlets recently recirculated comments Johnson made during a preseason press conference when he said he told Walton “don’t worry about if we get out to a bad start” and acknowledged the team might “struggle” early on because there are “so many new moving parts.” The implication was that Magic was trying to have it both ways—telling Walton before the season that he could take his time, only to reverse course and rush him now that things are underway.

很多媒体最近翻出了魔术师在开赛前媒体招待会上的发言，在招待会上他说，他告诉沃顿如果球队开赛进展不顺，沃顿不必为此担心。同时他也承认，因为球队的人员“大换血”，球队开赛很可能会表现挣扎。这表明魔术师其实做好了两手准备，一方面在开赛前告诉沃顿他可以慢慢来，另一方面，如果情况变成现在这样的话，他就会转过头来敦促他加紧脚步。

Except the part of that quote that I found most telling—then and now—came at the end: “Eventually,” Johnson said, “we are going to get it and we are going to be a really good team.”

抛开我觉得魔术师这个发言中（无论是过去还是现在）被广为传播的部分不谈，魔术师是这样收尾的：“最后，我们会做到我们想要做的，我们会成为一支很棒的队伍。”

“Eventually” did a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence, and it’s already given way under the weight of expectations. Consider something else Johnson said that same day before training camp began: “When you look at our roster, one through 14 and the talent that we have, the coaching experience of coach Walton and his staff, we should be excited. We brought in champions, too. People forget about that. We brought in JaVale, Rondo. People know what LeBron has done. That’s what our young players needed, not just bringing in veterans, but the right type of veterans.”

“最后”这个词在那番话里可谓是一语双关，它其实已经为湖人在名为“期望”的压力之下留好了后路。回想一下魔术师在训练营正式开始的前一天所说的话：“当你看着我们的14人大名单的时候，你会发现每个球员都有着出色的天赋，而且沃顿以及他带领的教练团队也是有着丰富的执教经验的，我们应该为之兴奋。我们也获得了一些有冠军经验的球员。人们忽视了这一点。我们获得了麦基，隆多。当然你们都知道勒布朗是冠军球员。这些正是我们队伍中年轻球员所需要的，我们所的做不仅仅是签下老将，而是签下了我们需要的老将。”

That sounded like a man who was pretty pleased with the team he’d constructed and was confident it would immediately tower over a portion of his NBA neighbors. But when pressed on how all those new pieces might or might not fit together, Johnson preemptively laid that responsibility at Walton’s feet and said “he’ll know how to put them in a winning position.”

通过这番发言，我们不难感受到魔术师对这支他一手构筑的队伍的喜爱，以及他对这支队伍在NBA中迅速崛起的信心。但是当谈到这些球员能不能相互契合的时候，魔术师则先发制人，马上把皮球踢到了沃顿脚下，然后说：“沃顿知道怎么带领他的球队赢球。”

“We just put the team together,” Magic said, “we get out the way.”

“我们才刚刚把这支队伍组建起来，”魔术师说道，“我们会找到出路的。”

If that initially came off as an executive promising not to micromanage his coach, in retrospect it reads like something else: We did our job, now go do yours.

最初，这番话可能被认为是魔术师的承诺，作为管理层他不会事无巨细地干涉沃顿的执教，但如今这番话看起来却变味了：我们管理层已经做了我们该做的，现在该你（教练）好好工作了。

That position is not unique to the Lakers. You don’t have to look too far to find other front offices around the league that were confident their teams would succeed only to be subsequently confused that they haven’t. The Wizards’ commitment to their core has reduced them to a soap opera, while the Cavs evidently and irrationally believed they could compete this season. The Lakers are obviously in a better spot than either of those teams. They have LeBron, after all. But that might be part of the trouble when it comes to how many wins Johnson and Pelinka believe they can wring out of this team without having to wait.

这情况也不是湖人独此一家。我们不需要到别处去找例子，在NBA里面看到，其他一些队伍的管理层开始也对他们的队伍的未来充满希冀，最后却糊里糊涂地铩羽而归。奇才对他们球队核心的投资投资就已经让他们陷入困境，（战绩不佳，交易沃尔要需要给出一笔交易保证金）与此同时，骑士队还盲目乐观地认为他们可以齐齐整整地打完这个赛季。湖人明显比这些队伍好上一些，毕竟他们有詹姆斯。但同时拥有詹姆斯也成了问题的一部分，就即战力而言，到底多少这个赛季什么样的战绩可以满足卡佩林跟魔术师的预期？

James hasn’t missed the playoffs since he was 20 years old. He’ll be 34 in December. He’s good. (I reviewed his work. It checks out.) But he can also do only so much. Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, Lonzo Ball, and Josh Hart are young, talented, and promising—but promising is the kind of hopeful placeholder you use when you’re still not sure exactly what you have. Each of them has shown flashes, but none of them have been reliable contributors. As Walton explained, “consistency” and “bringing it every single night” is the hardest thing for young players. “We do rely on LeBron to do a lot,” Walton conceded after the Raptors pummeled them.

詹姆斯自二十岁以来就从未缺席季后赛。在这个十二月他就会迈入三十四岁的大门。他仍是出色的。（我重新看了眼他的战绩，确实无误）但他能做到的也只有这么多了。布兰登英格拉姆，凯尔库兹马，朗佐鲍尔，还有约什哈特都是年轻，天赋出众，且未来可期的球员，但是未来可期还只是一句空话，你还不知道“天赋”这张空头支票能否兑现。虽然他们都已经展现过自己的才华，但是他们都还没有成长为可靠的杰出球员。就像沃顿曾说的，年轻球员最大的问题还是“稳定性”跟“每晚挑起大梁的能力”。“我们确实指望着勒布朗去做太多的事情”沃顿在被猛龙重创后坦言道。

And while Johnson hypes his veteran additions as champions, it’s worth remembering that they’ve been passed around the league like hors d’oeuvres—just appetizing enough to sample, but rarely satisfying enough to keep people from looking for something more.

在魔术师大肆宣扬他签下的前冠军球员们补充阵容深度的时候，我们需要记得这些球员都曾在联盟中到处漂泊，他们就像餐前的冷盘小吃一样，只能被“浅尝辄止”，他们无法像正餐一样满足人们更高的需求。

As my colleague Dan Devine pointed out, the problem with the idea of Lakers exceptionalism is that they aren’t so exceptional after LeBron. Justin Verrier, another Ringer teammate, summed up their specific issues pretty well.

就像我同事丹地温所指出的那样，湖人的问题在于，他们在得到了詹姆斯后并没有达到他们预期中的独树一帜。另一位在Ringer工作的同事贾斯廷维尔对湖人问题做了非常好的总结。

As of Tuesday, the Lakers were 10th in offensive rating but just 23rd in defensive rating. Nearly everyone in the league is struggling on the defensive end, but it’s been a particular problem for the undersized Lakers. It appears that the team guessed right on McGee, who leads the league in blocks per game and has held opponents to 45.6 percent shooting, according to NBA.com. (For reference, that’s the same as Anthony Davis, and just off Joel Embiid’s performance.) McGee has played far better than anyone could have anticipated, and he’s also on a sweet one-year deal for just $2.39 million. But while that move made the Lakers look smart, the void behind McGee is a huge issue. It was obvious from the beginning that the Lakers were thin in the middle—something that created rotation snags early on, forced James and Kuzma into emergency center duty at times, and recently prompted the team to sign Suns cast-off Tyson Chandler at the reported urging of Walton.

直到本周二为止，湖人在联盟中进攻效率排名第十但在防守效率上仅位于二十三名。几乎所有队伍都在为防守问题犯难，但这对惨淡的湖人而言却只是“雪上加霜”。根据NBA的官方数据，在防守端队伍很依赖麦基，麦基现在领跑联盟场均盖帽数据之余还能把对手的命中率限制在45.6%。（顺带一提，安东尼戴维斯的数据也是一样的，两人仅次于表现出色的乔尔恩比德）麦基的表现已经远超人们的预期，而他的合同更可以说是福利，仅仅是239万美元的一年短约。显然湖人从赛季开始就在五号位上有所欠缺，这就导致了比赛开始没多久就出现轮换问题，这也让詹姆斯跟库兹马不得不在事态紧急之时承担一部分中锋的责任，在沃顿向球队反映了这个紧急情况之后，促成了湖人签下太阳裁掉的泰森钱德勒。

While the Lakers wait for reinforcements and hope to course correct, they’ve periodically been bodied by bigger, more physical teams that present matchup issues. They want to play fast and are third in pace. Surprisingly, given the full-throttle approach, they’ve done a good job moving and taking care of the ball and are 12th in assist-to-turnover ratio. The tradeoff for going quick and small, though, is that they’ve gotten pushed around on the glass and are 22nd in rebound rate. On defense, they’ve given up 120 points per game. Only the Wizards and Pelicans have been worse. The Lakers’ opponents also have a 53.4 eFG percentage, which puts L.A. at 17th, according to Cleaning the Glass. (For context, that’s exactly where the struggling Rockets are, and well off the mark set by the Celtics’ league-leading, suffocating defense that’s held opponents to a 48 eFG percentage.)

就在湖人等待补强，希望能重返正轨的时候，他们已经被暂时被在对位上拥有体型跟对抗优势的队伍挡住了去路。他们想用快节奏打破僵局，导致了球队节奏（peace）高达联盟第三。令人震惊的是，在湖人踩尽油门提速的方案之下，他们在转移球方面做得很不错，助攻失误比排名联盟十二。但这种折中方案仅把速度提了上去，阵容也随之变小，他们的篮板出现了问题，篮板率仅排名联盟二十二。在防守端，湖人场均要丢120分。只有奇才跟鹈鹕在这方面比湖人更差。根据Cleaning the Glass给出的数据，湖人让对手的场均有效命中率来到了53.4%，仅排联盟17.（这里提一下，这也是火箭挣扎的地方，而凯尔特人这一数据则领跑联盟，限制对手的有效命中率仅为48%）

Serge Ibaka feasted against the Lakers the other night, making his first 14 shots en route to a career-high 34 points to go with 10 rebounds. Earlier in the season, Denver’s Nikola Jokic gobbled up similar counting stats (24 points, 11 rebounds), albeit in a Nuggets loss. Before that, San Antonio’s LaMarcus Aldridge ate them alive inside (37 and 10) in an overtime win for the Spurs, while Houston’s Clint Capela (19 points and 12) did the same in a win for the Rockets. The Lakers are like a double-double buffet that has every big man in the league salivating.

塞尔吉伊巴卡则在对阵湖人那一夜吃上了饺子，14投全中拿下生涯新高的34分，还拿抢下了10个篮板球。而在前些天的比赛中，掘金队的尼古拉约基奇也在对阵湖人的比赛中打出了类似的数据（24分，11篮板），尽管金爵最后输球了。再往前的比赛中，马刺的拉马库斯阿尔德里奇在一场有加时赛的比赛中更是把湖人的内线生吞活剥了（拿到了37分，10篮板）。火箭的克林特卡佩拉也在之前对阵湖人的比赛中做到了相似的事情（19分，12个篮板）且为火箭带来一场胜利。湖人的内线对联盟的大个子们来说就是一顿令人垂涎三尺的两双自助餐。

It should be noted that under Walton, the Lakers went from being abysmal on defense during his first season (30th in defensive rating) to pretty good a year ago (13th). But it’s not just the organizational edict that’s changed since last season. The personnel has too. Walton went from being charged with developing young talent for the future to trying to win now with a host of new, older faces. Johnson and Pelinka might think they provided Walton with depth and extreme strength, but any honest front office audit would reveal that they either miscalculated the time it would take for the team to get good or overestimated the sum of the parts they assembled. Either way, it’s hard to blame the bottom-line results on Walton alone.

我们需要注意的是，自沃顿执教以来，仅耗费一年，湖人从灾难一般的防守水平（联盟排名30的防守效率）上升至联盟十三。但从上赛季开始，不仅是湖人整体的方针变了，沃顿的个人执教方针也随之改变了。沃顿的任务从为球队未来培养年轻的天赋球员变为尝试带着一群新的“老”面孔去赢下比赛。也许佩卡林和魔术师觉得他们为沃顿配置了有深度的强力阵容，但联盟中任何诚实的管理层都会赞同：要么湖人队错误预算了球队磨合所需的时间，要么湖人过分高估了他们构建起来的队伍。无论如何，把这个开局不顺的黑锅全部丢给沃顿一个人都是说不过去的。

Of course, the NBA isn’t always a meritocracy, and fair doesn’t necessarily factor into expectations. That’s especially true in a big market like Los Angeles, where the spotlight has gotten only more intense now that LeBron is in town. As Fred VanVleet astutely noted at Raptors practice Saturday, “They have their own kind of hype show here in L.A. That’s just the nature of being in L.A.”

当然，NBA管理层也不全是精英班子，“公平摊分责任”也不是必须被纳入对管理层对最后成果期待值的考量中。这在洛杉矶这种大球市来说可谓是金科玉律，而在勒布朗加入之后，聚光灯只会更密集地照射在湖人上下。就像周六在猛龙练习时弗雷德-范弗里特在接受采访时指出的一样，“他们在洛杉矶自有他们的一套炒作。毕竟人在洛杉矶，这一切都是自然而然的。”

Which is precisely why we’ll likely keep bracing for more Walton-related job drama while the Lakers try to smooth over an otherwise rough start—despite Magic’s assurance Sunday that his coach shouldn’t sweat it. Before the Raptors game, Walton was asked about the support he received “in the wake of all that happened” last week. Walton didn’t want to play along at first, but eventually relented and called the support “nice” whether “it’s coming from my dad or it’s coming from another coach.” The dad part was catnip for reporters, and we rolled around in it before someone followed up and asked what, exactly, Bill said to young Luke. Walton’s reply was good for a laugh. Germane, too.

这也正是为什么我们如此喜爱并持续关注“沃顿帅位”这出大戏的原因，与此同时，湖人也在想方设法地平稳度过困难的开局——除了星期天魔术师保证沃顿无需担心帅位这档子事。上周在对阵猛龙的比赛之前，沃顿被问到，在“全部事情发生之后”他受到了多少支持。一开始沃顿并不想回答这个问题，但最后还是不再拒绝回答且称他受到了“很好的”支持，“无论这些支持是来来自我父亲还是来自于其他教练”对于沃顿提到的“父亲”的部分引起了记者们的极大的好奇，然后我们开始对此旁敲侧击，直到有人顺着势头问，到底比尔对年轻的卢克说了什么。沃顿相当风趣，得体地回答了这个问题。

“That he loves and supports me,” Walton said, “no matter what.”

“他一如既往的爱我且支持我”沃顿说到，“不管情况如何。”