The biggest blow to Darvin Ham’s career as the Lakers head coach came yesterday with a report citing six sources in the Lakers locker room claiming that the team is frustrated with him. Given the credibility of Shams Charania and Jovan Buha, the ones who wrote the article, this is a major report.
A Lakers rookie seemingly agrees, as Maxwell Lewis liked a post discussing this report on Instagram.
Many believe that Lewis’ liking the post implies he agrees with the contents, which wouldn’t be too surprising. Rookies usually steer clear of inciting uncertainty in a locker room, so it could be that Lewis just saw the report and agreed with the larger sentiment in the Lakers locker room instead of instigating this report.
Most of the rotational players are upset about their undefined roles in the rotation, which is likely upsetting LeBron James and Anthony Davis, who are having to play bigger minutes to make up for the inconsistency everyone else is showing. If either of the superstar pair has a bad game, the Lakers are bound to lose as we saw against the Heat with LeBron putting up just 12 points.
The Lakers are 17-18 and the tenth seed in the West right now.
Reason Behind The Lakers’ Frustration With Darvin Ham
Given how the roster stuck by Ham during the start of last season where the Lakers went 2-10 and didn’t climb up to .500 until March, it’s surprising to see the wheels fall off so quickly after a Western Conference Finals appearance. Faith in Ham paid off last season, but there won’t be any major roster changes for Ham to rely upon. Even a major trade won’t fix his inability to identify his best lineups, as Jovan Buha explained his rotations are the primary reason behind the team’s frustrations.
“The biggest thing has been the lineups and rotations. Guys feel like they don’t have a rhythm… 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.”
Lewis isn’t a rookie who could hope to get rotational minutes this season, so it’s unlikely he’s one of the players aggrieved about a rotational role. Nonetheless, his like could communicate the larger sentiment in the Lakers locker room.
The frustrations for players like Rui Hachimura and Max Christie have been evident, with even Austin Reaves seeing fluctuating minutes earlier in the season before finally returning to the starting lineup in the Heat loss. Jarred Vanderbilt still looks out of place while Christian Wood, Jaxson Hayes, Cam Reddish, and more can fluctuate from playing to being benched to being out of the rotation every week.
Outside Taurean Prince, it’s unlikely that many players in LA are happy about how Ham has been treating them. Whether this leads to his dismissal is something we’ll have to wait and see.
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