Darvin Ham received high praise for his playoff adjustments during the Lakers’ run to the Western Conference finals. He also deserves plenty of praise for being as blunt and candid as any coach in the NBA while addressing hot-button topics that people badly want to hear more about.
The proof of that comes from his interview with Marc Stein and Chris Haynes on the #thisleague UNCUT podcast, where the Los Angeles coach addressed a broad range of topics. One that jumped out in a big way was what Ham had to say about former Lakers guard Russell Westbrook, what he told him about the drastic role change to bring the nine-time NBA All-Star off the bench, and the magnitude of praise he had for him.
Ham started by giving Russ a shoutout and praising the 34-year-old for “taking a bullet” for the Lakers by making the change and coming off the bench.
“And I told Russ, I said—and shout out to Russ, man. He takes a lot of blame, and everybody seems to want to talk stuff about him … but some of the stuff he has to endure, and he’s still a very, very highly capable basketball player. I appreciate him for just giving it a chance and complying with what I wanted to do and just taking a bullet for the team,” Ham stated.
Shortly after, Ham gave fans some insight into what he told Westbrook about the role change, something that had to be a tough conversation but makes all the sense in the world.
“And like I told him, it’s not a demotion … okay, we got you, AD [Anthony Davis] and Bron [LeBron James] in the starting lineup. All of you guys need the ball, and most times you give it up, you’re going to go stand somewhere,” Ham explained.
"Why not allow me to help you, help us by realigning the rotation to where now you're coming off, and you get to dominate, dictate and do everything."
Westbrook's move to the bench absolutely added a different layer of excitement to the Lakers' second unit and also allowed, on multiple occasions, Ham and the Lakers to let him run the show while giving LeBron and Davis time to rest.
Ham spoke a bit more on the topic, citing how impactful Westbrook was in the role, pointing to fans chanting “MVP” for him and praising the guard for saving the Lakers’ “ass” on a bunch of occasions.
“People forget, man, when he came in from that reserve role, and we would put runners and shooters and rim rollers and finishers around him. There’s times they were chanting MVP for Russ. He saved our ass a bunch of nights where we started off flat and he came in and he pushed the tempo. He brought that energy. And you look up, and now we’ve gone on a 12-to-2 or 10–0 run as soon as he stepped into the lineup off the bench,” Ham concluded.
The honesty from the Lakers coach has to be appreciated, and he’s never one to bite his tongue on a key topic, which makes this team even more entertaining.
