Amidst reports claiming the Lakers locker room is frustrated with head coach Darvin Ham’s use of the players, Doc Rivers spoke at length about the way to maximize Anthony Davis‘ skill set to Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. Rivers said that the DPOY-caliber big man wants to continue pushing in the direction of being a defensive stopper.
(Starts at 17:04)
“AD won a national title scoring 6 points, he dominated defensively. He can score, he can pass, he does a lot of things right, but if you ask him what he wants to do every night, he wants to be the dominant defensive player. There are nights he still should dominate offensively. He did in New Orleans but he’s playing with a guy that’s 1A (LeBron) and he’s like, ‘I’ll do what it takes’.”
Rivers also went into detail about how every player on a team should know and buy into their roles perfectly.
“You just have to get every guy on the team to understand their role on the team. X and O’s is easy, I felt like in a timeout whatever I was drawing we were scoring or we were going to get a good shot. Getting each player to buy into his role, every guy’s not going to get the role they want, but if you want to win you have to do that.”
Anthony Davis is averaging 25.2 points, 12.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.2 steals, and 3.7 blocks this season. He could be in contention for Defensive Player of the Year if the Lakers had a better record this season, sitting at 17-18 currently.
Given everything Rivers said directly refers to the issues Ham has had this season, it’s clear Rivers has some ideas in mind for the Lakers while currently working for ESPN as a commentator.
Doc Rivers Could Be Angling To Be The Next Lakers Head Coach
Doc Rivers was let go by the Philadelphia 76ers after three years of second-round exits put a ceiling on what the team could achieve with him. This is a former NBA Champion and one of the leading veteran coaches in the NBA. If the Lakers were to fire Ham and needed a mid-season hire, bringing in Rivers would be the easiest solution.
LeBron is familiar with Rivers and how he wants his teams to play, competing against him for the entirety of his career including high-level playoff matchups. If James was on board, the Lakers may fire Ham and replace him with Rivers. All of the coaching flaws we have seen come out of Rivers in the playoffs can be tempered with LeBron also playing a role in the decision-making, something we know LeBron has done on every roster since he left the Miami Heat.
Rivers has a proven reputation as a strong defensive coach and clearly would use AD to anchor the Lakers’ defense. The team has many defensive pieces that Rivers should have no problems maximizing. What would be a challenge is identifying the team’s best 10 to 8-man lineups, one the biggest issues facing Ham since he took over as coach last season.
Offensively, instituting an offense with multiple set plays would already be a big improvement over what we see right now, with the Lakers having poor ATO plays consistently under Ham. Maybe this is the move that helps the Lakers, though there are many downsides the team will need to evaluate before making a decision.
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