The Los Angeles Lakers are in an awkward place at the moment. On the one hand, nothing about the roster seems set. On the other, they have a new Head Coach making all the right noises. The two situations have run contrary to one another in a lot of ways, most notably when it comes to the subject of Russell Westbrook’s future.
Darvin Ham has spoken time and again about integrating Westbrook into the team and ensuring he can play alongside Anthony Davis and LeBron James. However, the team’s pursuit of a deal for Kyrie Irving that would involve Russ has been an undercurrent throughout the offseason, meaning that whatever Ham is saying may just prove to be irrelevant by the time the season starts.
He has also made some comments about benching players that fail to buy into the vision, which might be tough in a highly scrutinized team like the Lakers. And Skip Bayless doesn’t believe Ham has what it takes, saying that as much on his show, Undisputed.
https://twitter.com/undisputed/status/1559570845848289284
“Darvin Ham is presenting himself as the new Sherriff in this town, ‘I got this’. I don’t think he got this. I don’t think he gets what’s about to hit him right between the eyes because LeBron is LeBron and he’s earned the right to be a diva or whatever he wants to be. Because he’s still the face of the franchise and the face of the league. And AD is a multiple-time All-Star and he’s gonna play in his own world.
“And now you’ve gotta deal with a Russ, who just last year upon arriving back home in Hollywood, a documentary was dropped, ‘The Life And Times Of Russell Westbrook’… Well, how do you bench that guy? Because his fall was so spectacular that even Russ couldn’t wrap his head around it.”
Whoever ends up on the roster next season, there will be some big calls to be made by Darvin Ham. And as a first-time Head Coach in the NBA’s largest market, the pressure to get those calls right will be enormous. It’s not hard to believe that he’ll be able to pull it off, but it certainly will be a mammoth task to undertake.
