It may not be October yet, but Lakers coach Darvin Ham already knows exactly what lineup he’s going to use to open games this season.
As the coach told reporters on Friday, James, Davis, and Westbrook have been joined by Kendrick Nunn and Damian Jones in early season lineups.
“I’m just looking at everything,” Ham said. “I see what fits with a small lineup, with Bron at the 4, AD at the 5, the traditional lineup. We haven’t paired Russ and (Patrick Beverley) together just yet, but we’ve been throwing out all types of lineups together out there. K-Nunn has been with some. Damian Jones and Wenyen Gabriel, Thomas Bryant — we’ve been rotating people all over the place just to see.”
“But it just comes down to mixing and matching players. They’ve adjusted to it well and kept it rolling, and made the best of it. It’s been a good camp thus far.”
Darvin Ham said an early starting group has been:
Westbrook, Nunn, LeBron, Davis and Jones
Ham today noted how well Nunn has been playing thus far.
Austin Reaves has gotten looks at SG as well, and clearly, Patrick Beverley can fit well with any group.
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) September 30, 2022
After raising the Larry O’Brien trophy in 2020, the Los Angeles Lakers followed it up with a pair of disappointing seasons that derailed all their momentum as a franchise. Now, the Purple and Gold are seemingly stuck with a squad that doesn’t know how to play together. For that reason, having a game plan that works from the jump will make all the difference.
It’s a solid group on paper, but it’s not going to be easy to make things work. Last season, we saw how bad of a fit Russ was in Los Angeles, and it’s going to take a lot of adjustments to fix all those flaws.
Darvin Ham Is Embracing The Challenge Of Coaching The Lakers This Season
Still, hope remains in what they can do and Ham has remained surprisingly optimistic about the monumental task set before him.
“I’m thrilled to coach Russ. They try to dump on Russ, I’m like that was one of the things that got me excited about this job,” said coach Ham. “He and I have had a great rapport since I’ve taken over the job man. Just text messages, phone calls, dinners. I locked in, I cornered his ass outside the elevator over at the Encore. He and I had a great conversation then. We all know what comes along with this businessman. People throwing your name in trade rumors. I’ve been in the league since 96, man. I don’t know anybody that’s been on any team that hasn’t had their name thrown in a trade rumor or been traded. As a coach, they’ll be saying they ready to fire me, the media be saying they ready to fire me in a year, year and a half. Well, you can’t help but hear the noise sometimes. You just got to stay solid, do what you do and you’ll win in the end every time. I witnessed it with him.”
Obviously, there are reasons to doubt the Lakers. LeBron is getting older, Westbrook hasn’t changed, and Anthony Davis continues to be unreliable.
But if things happen to turn out the right way, and this Lakers team catches a break for once, it could have some major implications on the title race this year.
