Kobe Bryant Defends Luke Walton On Twitter

Kobe Bryant hasn’t gone out of his way to comment on the Los Angeles Lakers much since his retirement, but that changed Sunday night. After the Lakers got hammered by the Minnesota Timberwolves, Bryant was quick to defend the team’s current coach — and his former teammate — Luke Walton.

Here’s the sequence of tweets:

Frankly, Bryant is right. The Lakers have dealt with a ton of key injuries this year, and are currently missing LeBron James, Rajon Rondo and Kyle Kuzma. That’s a ton of production sitting on the sidelines.

The Lakers were 20-14 with LeBron and have gone 1-5 without him. It’s not hard to understand why they’re struggling.

At one point earlier in the year, LA was 17-10, which put the team firmly in the mix at the top of the Western Conference. Walton was coaching the team then as well.

Right now the Lakers simply need more from their young core and a few key vets. Guys like Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball need to step up with Rondo and James out. Meanwhile, Lance Stephenson, Tyson Chandler and JaVale McGee all need to play better than they have.

Walton isn’t the problem. Without James, Rondo and Kuzma, this is an odd combination of young players and vets. That group just needs to hold the line until the other players are healthy.