Darvin Ham‘s frequent lineup changes have led to a “deepening disconnect” between the Lakers coach and his players, according to Shams Charania and Jovan Buha of The Athletic.
Six sources with direct knowledge of the situation spoke to the authors about a “disjointedness” that has arisen as Ham has adjusted roles of various players to try to shake the team out of its current slide. L.A. is 3-9 since winning the in-season tournament and has fallen to 10th in the West with a 17-18 record.
Ham used his 10th different starting lineup of the season in Wednesday night’s loss to Miami, making Austin Reaves a starter again in place of the injured Rui Hachimura. Sources tell Charania and Buha that the changes have led to “a fluctuating rhythm” for several players. The authors add that the adjustments have prevented the team from establishing any continuity or determining its best lineup combinations.
After Wednesday’s game, Ham said injury problems are responsible for his frequent changes. Cam Reddish has been in and out of the lineup due to a groin issue, Hachimura is sidelined with a Grade 1 left calf strain and D’Angelo Russell sat out his second straight game with a bruised tailbone.
Ham also suggested that the Heat, who were playing without Jimmy Butler, were in a better position than the Lakers.
“I think the multiple (rotation players) are more impactful than … if you lose one of your big dogs, you’re going to figure out how to try and manage without them,” Ham said. “… And when you have your key role players, your key rotation players – this guy misses three or four. This guy misses three or four. And they’re happening one right after another, that’s what makes it difficult. … We’ve got to figure it out. I’m disappointed, but I’ll be damned if I get discouraged.”
L.A. held a team meeting after Wednesday’s loss, Charania and Buha add, and many of the players were gone by the time the media were admitted to the locker room. Among those who talked to reporters, Reaves and Anthony Davis both emphasized that injuries are no excuse for losing, which the authors note is part of the disconnect between Ham and his players.
Ham has two full seasons beyond this one remaining on his four-year contract, so the Lakers will likely be reluctant to make a coaching change. He has also shown an ability to overcome adversity, leading the team to the Western Conference Finals after a 2-10 start to last season. However, Charania and Buha write that “time is of the essence” for L.A. to start winning and “patience is beginning to run thin.”
I thought LeBron was the coach?
Why do you think this was reported?
LeBron is the GM and coach…
You guys got to stop saying all the goofy stuff and stop hating on LeBron James. You know the head coach is Darvin Ham.
Darvin Ham not doing a good job. He’s changing the starting lineup and the rotation way too much.
LeBron James has only missed 3 games and Anthony Davis has only missed 2 games all year. Then Austin Reaves haven’t missed a game so it’s no need to keep changing the lineup around them like that.
Now I know Gabe Vincent been hurt majority of the season. Jarred Vanderbilt missed the first 20 games with the heel injury. Cam Reddish and Rui Hachimura been in and out of the lineup all season long.
Maybe if he just started Christian Wood at Center and Anthony Davis at Power Forward that could really work. Christian Wood can bang with the Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic of the world and let Anthony Davis free lance and play weak side defense.
Then you can have LeBron James and Austin Reaves as your Point Guard and Shooting Guard and Taurean Prince as your small forward. Everybody can play defense and everybody can shoot so the floor will be spaced.
Then off the bench you use D’Angelo Russell Rui Hachimura Jarred Vanderbilt and Cam Reddish. So if any of them hurt or have to miss a game you got guys like Max Christie or Jaxson Hayes that can fill in.
The Lakers have LeBron and Anthony Davis …. That’s it! They are in 10th place in the West, and trying to hold off Golden State and Memphis for the last Play-In slot.
All offseason Lakers fans lied to themselves about D’Angelo Russell, Rue Hachimura, Taurean Prince and Gabe Vincent. Somehow Austin Reaves got paid and digressed.
It’s a wrap!
After they signed all those players the experts picked them to be a top 4 team. the problem is not seeing how team chemistry plays a big part. If they don’t make conference finals will lebron leave for a better team? NBA is getting way younger and the older teams are struggling.
Most of their roster has been hurt a bit especially Vincent. Also they have no offense/shooters. Reaves hasn’t digressed if anything he’s the only one aside from LBJ & AD with value to trade to acquire someone but his contract is really good so if they make any trades he’ll have to be part of it & there isn’t any one available worth moving him available right now
“digressed” lol. Not the right word.
I’m picturing Austin just talking nonsense in every team setting lol
Regressed?
This team needs a trade. This is a veteran team and need 5 veteran starters. LeBron should be playing SF and Davis playing PF. Reeves as the sixth man. Russell, Rui H and Wood need to be traded. A veteran SG, PG and C are needed to start. I know people will not like this one but sign Dwight Howard to start at C but play limited minutes with Wood backing him up. Trade Russell, Rui H and 1st for a veteran PG and SG.
But they won the extremely meaningful and prestigious in-season tournament.
One and done tournaments and the pathways you face are weird…
Sarcasm….
Yep and 29 other teams came up short *shrugs*
It’s cursed
Maybe have LeBron talk to Rubio in private
I think DeRozan and Drummond. Find a veteran PG out there. Hey Minnesota want Russel back for Conley.. . Jk
Ham did a great job coaching this team last season. He has one of the hardest rosters to coach in the league, if not the hardest, at least when there’s an expectation of winning. MIA, other the other hand, has one of the easiest. I don’t know that there is a single formula with the LAL roster that will help this team to be the best version of itself with and without LBJ and AD. If there is one, I’m not sure it will be acceptable to LBJ and AD.
To Ham’s credit, last year’s LAL team wouldn’t have even been in the play-in had the “rest of the guys” not stepped up and won some games down the stretch of the season against teams favored to beat them. His lineups then appeared to be inspired by his gut, for the most part, and it will likely have to be that way again. There’s no HC out there that’s going to deal any better with this group.
I don’t know if I agree with that. Yeah, the expectations are huge, but I’d argue the Celtics have bigger expectations, having been right on the precipice for several years. If Mazzulla were running with this record, he’d have been fired already.
As for Ham, he’s always been kind of mid as an offensive coach. The Lakers have largely been predicated on defense since their 2020 title team, and that’s continued under Ham. But the offense has cratered, and instead of mixing up sets, Ham has been shuffling the lineups around LeBron and AD constantly. Last season, it worked out better because LeBron and AD weren’t always available, and Ham had to figure things out on the fly. He’s been leaning hard on the Lakers star duo for the entire season as a crutch this year. AD and LeBron have one of the highest two-player usage rates in the league, which isn’t sustainable. And especially the starters have struggled with shooting. 2/19 from the starting five last night wasn’t an outlier, it’s a trend. Ham’s not running the offense optimally, especially in the crunch. Tons of top-of-the-key threes (roughly 50% of all the team’s threes have been from the top of the key) while LeBron and AD try and attack the rim. It’s just poorly executed. Spacing isn’t just shoot and pray. And being garbage at offensive rebounding is exacerbating that. Constant paint offense with minimal proper shooting and then weak follow-up. Not a recipe for success.
Expectations become more problematic when they exceed reasonable expectations. BOS and LAL are likely on different planes in terms of ceiling, but are certainly on different planets in terms of floor.
IMO, HCs are best evaluated on how well they coach, not on every thing that might occur on the court that people don’t like. Certainly, HC’s don’t run a team’s offense, particularly at the NBA level. A HC’s on court impact is done through personnel decisions involving court time and roles. Most NBA HCs are limited in their flexibility to coach, but few face the amount of limitations that Ham did last year and does again this year, and those who do usually have far better options. If the players (two in particular) want him gone, then he’s gone and should be gone because its their team really (they do run the offense you don’t like). However, let’s not pretend there is any other objective reason for the firing.
Disagree heartily with the second part of that. Yes, there’s a lot to be said for the adjustments players make on the floor, but the way the team plays and how certain players are utilized are on the head coach more than anyone. Doc Rivers is a perfect example of that dichotomy. He can get a lot out of the team’s base plan, but can’t make adjustments, which is why he underperforms in the postseason.
Ham, imo, is a great coach in terms of defensive scheme and gameplan. He runs the funnel-and-switch defense that the Lakers use at a high level. But on offense he has like five sets and just spams them. He himself said he wanted to use LeBron and Davis less, and yet has been playing them at near league-high rates for a 2-man duo. He wants Davis to shoot more 3’s, but won’t run sets for him to do so. He wants LeBron to play off-ball more, but made him the primary ballhandler in most of his lineups; he even has played him as the PG in several of them! There’s a big disconnect between what he says and how he runs the team. Furthermore, he’s spent a lot of time working *away* from the sets that worked in that playoff run, such as LeBron and Reaves mutually screening for each other on pick-and-pops. Instead, setting up a bunch of bad top-heavy slash plays and isos, which slows down the pace and limits passing.
I can’t agree with what you said in the context of Ham. No shot.
@ DXC:
Last season’s run was fueled by massive ref help.
Oh yeah. I must have forgotten.
Seinfeld “thats a shame” gif
What a bunch of whiners. Just play the game and stop looking to blame anyone but yourself. What a sad group of losers.
Nvm I take back my Rubio comment
every coach … literally every..single…one LeBron James has played for has been fired… except one. And that one (Erik Spoelstra) he tried to have fired by Pat Riley….. Think on that
Mike Brown left the same offseason as LeBron, and Tyronn Lue left in the 2019 season after LeBron had already left. Only Blatt (deserved, couldn’t coach a modern NBA offense worth a damn), and Frank Vogel (wasn’t willing to actually work with the players he had, but maybe got the short end of the stick) got fired. More revisionist history nonsense.
Brown was fired by the Cavs TWICE… sorry if you thought otherwise.. and you think Lue left on his own too.. man they have you been brained washed lol.. don’t believe me though.. really easy to google “mike brown fired” and “Tyronn Lue fired” yourself
Lue left six games into the 2019 season, lol. How’s LeBron going to fire a guy when he’s no longer there?
Likewise, Brown got fired when LeBron wasn’t with the team both times. He was a free agent at the time of both firings. If that’s anything, it’s Dan Gilbert being a crap owner who would rather blame others for his unwillingness make big deals. Also, the second time Brown was fired was after a 33 win season. Such an impressive job he did…
The only coach who was ever fired during LeBron’s tenure with the Cavs was Paul Silas in 2005, who was explicitly fired when Gilbert bought the team because Gilbert didn’t like him. LeBron had nothing to do with that. He liked Silas.
Seriously, nonsense. You are full of it.
Brown was fired by Cleveland to appease LeBron, in hopes that it could lead to him staying in Cleveland.
Brown would not have been fired had they known that LeBron was for sure leaving regardless.
LeBron is a better human than you
jump shot, Brown had worn out his welcome with the FO by that point, and Gilbert wanted to use him as a scapegoat after the Magic beat the Cavs in the 09 conference finals but got talked out of it. Yes, he would have been fired anyway. It’s not like they made any moves to, y’know, supplement the actual team on the floor in that offseason, which might have *actually* kept LeBron in town.
Don’t forget Vogel won while coaching there, and still got the exit.
@pandam: Coaching is always a “what have you done for me lately” kind of job. How many coaches won coach of the year and then immediately got the boot? Dwayne Casey and Mike D’Antoni off the top of my head come to mind.
Vogel had regressed and was beefing with players and the FO over the state of the roster. He might have gotten the short end of the stick because Pelinka’s deal to bring in Westbrook for all their depth and then doing a crap job of filling out the roster was the true culprit for their struggles, but he didn’t do himself any favors there either. I don’t think that was LeBron’s fault.
(I’m of the opinion that Vogel is overrated anyway, but that’s not really relevant. He did great in his first two years with the team and won a chip, as you said)
Blatt, I will give you. But he 100% deserved to get fired because his players had to carry him, like a worse Doc Rivers. He showed no ability to adjust to anything at the NBA level. And he’s never coached in the NBA again despite a winning record in his season and a half, proving that he’s not really a fit for the pros at all.
*the two prior years, not his first two for Vogel.
Even in Spoelstra’s case he didn’t necessarily want him fired, he wanted to be coached by Riley.
“he didn’t want him fired, he wanted to be coached by riley”….. let me put what you just said in other context… “he didn’t rob the bank, he just told them to give him all the money in the vault and they said sure” lol
Have you ever once looked at the coaching history for the 29 teams that do not have Lebron on them?
You dropped your tinfoil hat, by the way.
You can name other players who have seen 7 head coaches fired, and tried to have an 8th fired as well? Please name one or two for me
Never thought he was a good coach.
Lakers and LeBron got their bogus title for this year and won’t be anywhere near winning the real title. Looks good on them.
So the lakers players are blaming Ham because he had to change the lineup due to injuries. Okay sure.
Who you gonna replace him with?
Coach Bud or Doc Rivers hahaha
They’ve had a title hangover and think that the in season tournament was a building block for a successful season…
It will be funny if the first ever winner of the IST doesn’t make the playoffs…
Oh ooooohhhh …. BronGM is going to make a move…….
They blame DG and Markieff in 2021
They blame Gasol and Kuzma in 2022
They blame Westbrook and Vogel in 2022
They blame Ham in 2023
But they never blame Lebron
Ham is clearly in over his head. And to use the Heat as a point of reference is laughable. The Heat have had to deal with all sorts of injuries, both to the big guns and smaller role players, yet they’ve managed to stay afloat and then some. But that’s the difference having arguably the best coach in the game makes.