Report: Lakers team officials and players were frustrated with Darvin Ham's adjustments and rotation decisions throughout the season
After the Los Angeles Lakers were sent home packing by the Denver Nuggets for the second straight year, it wasn’t long before reports surfaced about Darvin Ham’s job security. According to The Athletic's Shams Charania, who co-wrote the latest report on the Lakers together with Jovan Buha and Sam Amick, the main reason why Ham’s job security is now in jeopardy is because of how the Purple and Gold officials and players have felt about him all year.
“The Lakers believed this roster was built for much more than a first-round defeat. Vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka and his staff retained key free agents, such as Austin Reaves, Russell, and Hachimura, extended Jarred Vanderbilt, and believed the core had promise to make a title run around Davis and James,” wrote Charania, Buha, and Amick.
“Throughout the series and most of the season, however, team officials and players believe Ham’s fluctuating rotations, game plans, and lack of adjustments led to an underperforming group. It created discontent within the locker room, which became palpable across the franchise,” the article further states.
Ham just might have coached his last Laker game
This report was expected to come out as soon as the Lakers’ season was over, considering how the year went for them. There’s no sugarcoating the fact that they underperformed significantly, given that both James and Davis played 71 and 76 games, respectively.
The problem with the Lakers was that they just couldn’t string together wins throughout the season for multiple reasons, whether that’s because of inconsistent rotation changes, injuries, underperforming role players, etc. According to Ham, the theme of the season was that every time L.A. would take one step forward, somehow something happened that led them to take two steps back.
“It seemed like every time we hit a rhythm, somebody, a key piece, would fall out of the lineup. It is what it is, man,” Ham said after the Game 5 defeat. “I’m not going to feel sorry for myself, for ourselves. It’s an unbelievable franchise to represent. I couldn’t ask for a better governor, a better president of (basketball operations) in Rob Pelinka and Jeanie Buss. But I’ve seen a lot my first two years in this seat. I’ll continue to work, to get better, and to control what I can control,” Darvin added.
During his post-game interview, Ham also spoke like somebody who knows that he is about to get fired.
Firing Ham is just a band-aid solution
If the Lakers believe that their biggest problem this season was the coach, and they solve that by firing him, then that’s simply not going to get them anywhere. As an organization, they have to address a couple more problems, such as the fact that the supporting cast around James and Davis wasn’t good enough to compete with the defending champions. More importantly, they will have to focus on re-signing LeBron, who has a player option this offseason.
It’s going to be an interesting summer for the Lakers, one with more questions than answers compared to last season. Their goal has always been simple: Do everything they can to compete for championships. Their decisions and moves this summer will be telling in terms of whether or not they still believe in the James-Davis duo tandem moving forward.
