The Los Angeles Lakers find themselves in a pickle. After winning just three of their last 11 games, the Lakers have fallen below .500 and are barely holding onto the 10th seed in the West. Even with injuries interrupting the chemistry of their lineup, such a result with a healthy LeBron James and Anthony Davis was not expected by anyone.
After scoring under 100 points in a 96-110 loss to the Miami Heat, the Lakers are looking flat, and their coach hasn’t been able to do anything to change it. Mid-season coaching changes are always problematic, but the Lakers may have to commit to a big switch with how poorly Darvin Ham is performing,
Moving on from Ham for a new coaching voice might just be the right path, as there aren’t any magic bullet trades that the Lakers can make which will overhaul the roster as they did last season. At best, they move for out-of-favor guards like Zach LaVine and Dejounte Murray at the cost of future assets and rotational depth. Instead, looking to replace Ham could be the correct choice. They have five clear reasons as to why it needs to be done.
1. Disappointing Performances So Far
We are almost halfway through the season and the Lakers are 17-18 after the first 35 games of the season. They were flying high when they won the In-Season Tournament off the backs of LeBron and AD having some of their signature performances of the season. However, the post-tournament fortunes haven’t been as bright. The Lakers have fallen from the fifth seed to tenth, just a game-and-a-half removed from falling to the 12th seed in the West.
For a roster built to Ham’s liking, this should be unacceptable. There have been poorly timed injuries, but many teams are going through similar things and not falling apart in such a manner. The Cleveland Cavaliers are above .500 despite the long-term absences of Darius Garland and Evan Mobley. The Mavericks are still fighting for a top-six seed despite injuries to various rotational players and a month-long absence from Kyrie Irving. Injuries are unfortunately limiting the Lakers, but it hasn’t made them so disastrously bad.
The Lakers have the fifth-worst offensive rating in the NBA, with Ham taking a huge chunk of the blame. They’re running basic rotational sets on offense that most teams adjust to very quickly. Unless LeBron or AD are pulling off magic in over 40 minutes of play, the Lakers are incapable of winning and that’s a failing that falls squarely on Ham.
2. Confusing Rotations
Darvin Ham hasn’t figured out the best five that the Lakers can play on a game-by-game basis. They keep tinkering with the squad, similar to last year. But the injury crisis hasn’t affected AD as it did earlier last year. Despite his DPOY-level play, the Lakers haven’t been able to build a solid rotation around AD and LeBron that can reliably close games.
Ham and the Lakers recently unveiled a lineup with LeBron at point guard and AD at center, with the three players alongside them being Cam Reddish, Taurean Prince, and Jarred Vanderbilt. This was statistically the worst lineup to play in the NBA this season. No five-man lineup for the Lakers has played more than 151 minutes total this season. In comparison, the Celtics starting five have already logged 294 minutes this season, even with injuries to Kristaps Porzingis.
Not finding the right balance between their guard scorers, insisting on starting Taurean Prince regardless of how he’s playing, and not allowing a five-man lineup to build continuity is one of his biggest failings this season. Even with key players constantly missing time, Ham isn’t using these lineups when they’re healthy. His tinkering habits are hurting the Lakers and they need to make a change with enough time to build continuity under a new coach.
3. Using LeBron James As Point Guard
The 2020 Lakers were a fierce team in the bubble and during the pre-pandemic shutdown because they were using LeBron James in a position he hadn’t played throughout a season before. His only year as a full-time point guard led to a championship, an idea that many Lakers fans believe would happen. However, James is 39 years old and there was a good reason why he wanted Russell Westbrook, then Kyrie Irving, and empowered guards like Alex Caruso and Austin Reaves to take a bigger role in the offense.
James is 39 years old and simply can’t be expected to bring the ball up the floor on every possession, and set his teammates up, while also being a 25+ point scorer. The recipe from four years ago no longer exists, as the Lakers aren’t loaded with shooters as they were in 2020 or veteran talent that can play off a high-IQ guard like James consistently.
Even last season, the Lakers exceeded with James moving up a position and playing power forward, with even lineups where he’s playing center being fruitful for LA. James is a wing or a big at this point in his career and Ham needs to trust guards on the team to play alongside him instead of cutting them out to run James as a guard. Austin Reaves was forced into a sixth-man role when it was clear he could help as their primary guard if the team lost faith in D’Angelo Russell. Instead, a streaky shooting LeBron is being asked to focus on guard play when he should be playing as a wing, a failing directly related to Ham.
4. Offensive Incapability As A Head Coach
The one thing that’s been constant across the tenure of Darvin Ham on the Lakers is the Lakers being a poor offensive team. They had an offensive rating of 114.5 last season (21st in the league) while their fifth-worst offense in the NBA this season has a rating of 112.4. When you have players like LeBron and AD averaging over 25 points, that should be unacceptable. Ham’s offensive incapability is linked with the previous two points, as the reasons behind his fidgety rotation and playing LeBron as a point guard are inherently linked.
Ham cannot figure out how to get this Lakers offense ticking with D’Angelo Russell misfiring and now getting hurt. LeBron at point guard is a way for Ham to give the offensive keys to LeBron, who is well-known for his ability to coach his teammates while on the court. Relying on James at this juncture to be the offensive magnet is hurting the Lakers, as they lose the minutes without him because Ham can’t adjust to not having a mind of that caliber to get the offense ticking.
This is an aspect where the solution doesn’t solely fall on Ham, as this is also a personnel issue. Nonetheless, running an offense that’s competing with tanking teams to not be the worst in the NBA is a big failing for Ham. They had a clunky offense all of last season, including the playoffs, but get carried by the strength of their defense. This season, Ham’s defensive expertise is simply not making up for his offensive shortcomings.
5. Seems To Have Lost The Locker Room
As a coach, Ham should be able to inject energy into his players, something we saw him do repeatedly last season. He was a great captain for a downtrodden ship and was the one to lead them out of it last season. But the same impact isn’t resonating with the team anymore. Ham is a sophomore head coach with a lot of room to grow, but the Lakers don’t have the patience to watch Ham go through the growing pains of being an NBA coach. Their window is limited to this season or the next, so LA can’t keep wasting their time with him.
The post-game quotes from the loss to the Heat were illuminating, as Ham went out of his way to blame injuries when the Heat were also without Jimmy Butler. Conversely, Austin Reaves and Anthony Davis emphasized how injuries cannot be faulted for the Lakers’ current failings. There’s a disconnect between the message the coach is giving and the players are giving, which shows more can be done but the coach keeps waiting for health to be on his side.
Frank Vogel lost his job two seasons after winning a title because injuries piled up and bad trades were made, with his inability to cope with those changes hurting the locker room. Ham is in that cycle and is managing egos like LeBron and AD, two players who know what it takes to win. If they don’t believe in him, the rest of the locker room won’t believe in him. With some of the bench reactions and post-game comments, there’s a clear rift between the coach and his players, something that needs to be fixed before the Lakers find themselves digging out of a hole like they had to last year.
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