The Los Angeles Lakers are standing at the door of what should be an extremely important offseason for them. They could look far different when next season starts, and that could start with their leadership on the bench.
Head coach Darvin Ham’s job is “very much in jeopardy” after a disappointing season in which they won just 47 games and had the eighth-best record in the Western Conference. It culminated with them losing in five games to the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs.
When the season started, many felt L.A. had at least an outside shot of contending for the NBA championship. Many have blamed Ham for the team’s shortcomings because of how he kept fiddling with its starting lineup and rotations, especially during the first half of the season.
Ham tried to defend himself from that criticism, citing the injuries to role player L.A. had to deal with all year.
Via ESPN:
“It’s been extremely challenging,” Ham said. “Everyone that’s been in and out of the lineup. Being criticized for not having a consistent rotation when I don’t have consistent healthy bodies. The thing that frustrates me, and I love this job, I love the pressure that comes with it, I’ve always been calm in the midst of chaos … (But) common sense tends to go out the window when you talk about my job in particular.
“It’s amazing how people just skip that core part of having a consistency with your lineup is all predicated on health and performance. If you’re coaching a team and one of your starters is like 10 games in a row, just (expletive) the bed, what are you going to do?”
Ham eventually settled on a starting five that consisted of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura. While Hachimura had some brief stints on the injured list, Ham also benched Russell and Reaves at different points of the season.
In fact, for a brief time in late December, Ham had both Russell and Reaves coming off the bench, a move that didn’t sit well with people within the organization.
Plenty of people, including some within the organization, believe this experimentation with the Lakers’ starting five led to the Lakers winning just 19 of their first 40 games and being in danger of missing the play-in tournament.
