Amid difficult times for the Los Angeles Lakers, one NBA scout called them out for wrongfully pinning the blame on their former head coach. In a chat with ESPN, people came to the defense of Darvin Ham and explained that the team’s real issue is their poorly built roster.
“It’s been interesting to me, Darvin [Ham] took a lot of s— last year,” a Western Conference scout told ESPN. “I think now you’re seeing like, ‘Oh, maybe it wasn’t Darvin. Maybe it’s the f—ing roster.'”
Another Western Conference executive agreed with the take and advised the Lakers to shore up their defensive resistance with a solid, two-way perimeter player.
“They need to trade for a good point-of-attack defender that can at least be capable of knocking down open shots,” an Eastern Conference scout told ESPN. “They don’t have many perimeter defenders.”
Darvin Ham was the replacement for Frank Vogel but after a brief honeymoon period, the team turned on him shockingly fast. Over two years with the Lakers, Ham navigated through various highs and lows, including a run to the Western Conference Finals in 2022.
However, saying that Ham’s tenure was chaotic might be an understatement. As the Lakers struggled to consistently win games, fans grew increasingly skeptical of Ham’s rotations, schemes, and leadership in the locker room. Even his own players began to question his decisions on the court.
The Lakers never got past the Conference Finals under Ham’s tenure and before he left, the chemistry had become unbearably toxic both on and off the court. So when the Lakers fired Ham and replaced him with “basketball savant” JJ Redick, they assumed it would help their progress as a team.
At first, the Lakers looked much better on the court, and in the first few games they looked like a much more connected group in just about every way. Thanks to JJ Redick’s playcalling, Anthony Davis was thriving on the floor and every player was on the same page.
Of course, it didn’t take long for things to start sliding backward again. As losers of 7 in their last 10 games, the Lakers are down to 13-12 and 10th in the West. The team is falling into old habits again and frustration is building throughout the entire organization.
It’s clear now to fans and experts that the real problem on the Lakers wasn’t Darvin Ham. The problem is, and has been, a subpar roster with a lack of depth that puts too much burden on LeBron James and Anthony Davis. This season, besides Austin Reaves, no Lakers player has consistently stepped up and the best that the Lakers can hope for is a hot shooting night for at least one of their perimeter scorers.
Leading up to February’s deadline, the Lakers are searching far and wide for reinforcements but with so few assets to offer, they are somewhat limited in what moves they can make.
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