Former Lakers head coach Darvin Ham, who is an assistant coach for the Bucks, recently appeared on the ‘Hoop Genius’ podcast to clear the air on why Westbrook really had a difficult time on the Lakers.
The Bucks’ assistant coach began by addressing the media narratives about Russell Westbrook and how the rumors that begin with “inside sources say…” should be flushed down the toilet. He believes it was not due to any locker room drama, but rather the financial situation in which Westbrook joined the franchise that prevented them from materializing into a championship.
“But in terms of Russ, man, you know, it was a difficult situation. To get a player like that, you pretty much have to gut your team. And that’s essentially what happened.”
“To get Russ on the Lakers, they had to part ways with Alex Caruso. They had to part ways with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma, a lot of other players they weren’t able to get because the money wasn’t there,” said Ham.
“Because now you have three essentially supermax players, right, on your roster. And you know, and then now you’ve got to go after lower-level players,” Ham further added.
“God bless, they’re capable players, but to be elite, to win a championship in our league, you have to be elite and have an elite group. And a lot of times, the financial constraints won’t allow you to do so.”
Ham essentially believes that the level of role players they had on the roster at the time was not good enough for the coaching staff to figure out the right rotations and matchups to use in games that led to a lack of results.
The discourse around Russell Westbrook’s time with the Lakers came back into relevance after Westbrook faced travesty this past summer, where we nearly saw him end free agency without a contract for the first time in his 18-year career.
After he decided to drop his $3.6 million player option with the Nuggets, he saw a logjam of guards in free agency and saw himself in a difficult spot where he nearly considered going overseas.
It was during the preseason that his deal with the Kings was finalized. But before that, several former players and analysts blamed the Lakers for the downfall in his career.
It was also during this time that a book was released, which claimed that Westbrook found LeBron James to be “fake” when he was on the Lakers. He also reportedly refused to sign a Lakers jersey with his name after a game against his former franchise.
Westbrook averaged 17.4 points, 7.2 assists, and 6.9 rebounds while shooting 29.7% from three-point range in the two seasons he spent with the Lakers. It was the first time he had to accept a role where he came off the bench, and subsequent teams only saw him as a bench player after that.
During his Lakers career, Darvin Ham had 90 wins and 74 losses. He had three future Hall of Famers in LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, and Anthony Davis on the roster and still failed to convert it into a championship before eventually losing his job.
To be fair, if you think about it, he is right. The Lakers presently only have four players who are the same on their roster from the 2022-23 season when Ham was the coach. Only Austin Reaves, LeBron James, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Rui Hachimura are still on the roster from that season, and now the Lakers finally look like contenders, years after that superteam was assembled.
In my opinion, Ham is right that while Westbrook’s performance is not to be blamed, the financial burden that came with his $91 million salary obligations at the time.
While Westbrook is not single-handedly responsible for the superteam’s failure, the Lakers are to be blamed for changing the way the league sees Westbrook. The 18-year veteran lost the spark in his game ever since he started coming off the bench.
Do you think all the rumors about the locker room issues are false? Are financial constraints the real reason why the Lakers failed to convert their superteam with Russell Westbrook into a championship-winning team? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
