The Los Angeles Lakers are trying to embrace a new philosophy and instantly return to contention this season with Darvin Ham.
The wheels have completely fallen off the Lakers since their 2020 Championship, with two turbulent offseasons that saw them lose their best rotation players for little to minimal value. Now they are stuck in the situation they’re in, but Coach Ham knows how to make it work.
Since he was appointed, Coach Ham has emphasized certain points every time he speaks to the media. The first is that he hopes the team will commit to playing defense once again, and the other is sacrifice. He spoke extensively on what sacrifice means in his latest appearance on the ‘All The Smoke’ podcast.
Darvin Ham on the word “sacrifice” during his appearance on the All The Smoke podcast video courtesy of @shobasketball: pic.twitter.com/ytSX1jwcQT
— The Lakers Review (@TheLakersReview) July 21, 2022
“We talk about sacrifice. The first thing people think about is sacrificing scoring output or shots. No, sacrifice is making selfless plays. If you don’t have the ball pushing on the break, are you willing to sprint to your spot and open up a lane for your teammate? Are you willing to sprint and open up a shot for your teammate? Are you willing to box out even though you’re not getting that damn rebound, but you putting a body on a body, so your man can come in and scoop it up and keep it going with our pace? That’s the thing I am thinking about.”
A lot of these comments seem to be directed at Russell Westbrook, according to fans, with even Ham previously laying out his role for him. However, this has to be a larger team philosophy that every single Laker needs to buy into, including Anthony Davis and LeBron James.
If the Lakers can commit to playing like this, and it works, they should at least make the playoffs considering they have LeBron and AD on their team. The Westbrook situation is tough, but at this point, it may be best for the Lakers to move him for someone that fits their system better,
