Adrian Wojnarowski and Dave McMenamin of ESPN today claimed Walton could be sacked as Lakers coach should results fail to improve.
The Lakers are 3-5 in the early stages of the season after their 114-113 win against the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night.
It was claimed Lakers president Magic Johnson slammed Walton in a meeting after their below-par start to the season.
Walton’s job now solely depends on improving the results James and the Lakers’ young core are producing.
However, ESPN add that James is fully behind the Lakers head coach.
Wojnarowski and McMenamin wrote: “The free-agent arrival of James has intensified expectations surrounding the roster.
“James has a history of clashing with coaches upon arriving in free agency, including with Miami’s Erik Spoelstra and Cleveland’s David Blatt, but there have been no signs of James’ disapproval with Walton. While the Blatt relationship never gained traction, James and Spoelstra built a partnership that led to two NBA titles and four Finals appearances.
“So far, James has been publicly and privately supportive of Walton.”
James has been vocal on Walton playing around with the Lakers starting line up this season, with the three-time NBA champion revealing he’ll get it right soon.
“I think Luke’s trying to figure out what works best,” James said.
“We knew it was going to be like that from the summer when ‘Zo had the knee surgery.
“We knew we were going to have a lineup change there.
“Obviously, we had the unexpected one when we had the suspensions, so we had a lineup change there….
“We’ll get to a point where we know how comfortable we need to be with different lineups.”
James and the Lakers are back in action on Saturday night against the Portland Trail Blazers.