The Los Angeles Lakers fell under .500 two nights ago with a loss to an undermanned Heat roster. Since then, Darvin Ham has faced the ire of the media and fans as a report came out suggesting he had lost the locker room. The co-author of that report was Jovan Buha, who cited six sources for his story on the frustrations in the LA locker room. He elaborated on the frustration with the lineups and rotation with Jason Timpf.
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“The biggest thing has been the lineups and rotations. Guys feel like they don’t have a rhythm, that’s partly on them. Ham addressed that. He refrains from calling people out, he likes to keep things inside the house. But last night, he called out some of the new additions and said they have to play better… That was sort of out of character with normally how he handles criticizing players, he likes to keep all that stuff internal. For him to do that publicly was telling of where this is headed… It’s clear up until this point, they don’t know who their best 5 players are… Night to night, there’s no consistency. They have a general identity but in terms of the actual rotation. I thought Max Christie was playing well and got benched for 2 weeks. Christian Wood has outplayed Jaxson Hayes overall this season and got benched also.”
Darvin Ham’s days as the Lakers head coach are numbered unless he can lead the team to a competitive seed. If Nikola Jokic hadn’t hit a 39-foot buzzer-beater last night, the Warriors would’ve taken the 10th seed and sent the Lakers to No. 11 and out of the play-in tournament. This would be disastrous for a team coming off a Western Conference Finals appearance that theoretically reinforced their roster in the summer.
Firing Darvin Ham May Not The Solution
There’s no doubt that the Lakers have been held back by Darvin Ham, with the players on the court unclear on their roles and what they need to do to guarantee their minutes. If he’s lost the locker room, the chances he keeps his job will be slim, especially on a team led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
But the Lakers’ rotational players aren’t playing like last year either. The biggest factor has been D’Angelo Russell’s drop-off over December. He was looking like a serviceable and consistent point guard through the first month and a half before averaging 10.4 points and 5.5 assists over December before getting hurt. Without his offensive creation, the Lakers are incapable of competing against the best in the West.
D’Lo’s fall-off hurt them against the Nuggets as well, indicating the Lakers need to trade that spot anyway. Firing Ham won’t be enough, but biting the bullet on a D’Angelo-focused trade to increase scoring would change their fortunes. They’ve been trying to convince the Bulls to take D’Angelo instead of Reaves for Zach LaVine, and will likely be looking to swap D’Lo for Dejounte Murray as well.
If the cost is an unprotected first-round pick, the Lakers have to do it. Otherwise, this may be another year they hope to overachieve in the postseason after going through the play-in.
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