The Los Angeles Lakers showed their potential as a contender during their run through the In-Season Tournament, where they went 7-0 and were utterly dominant, particularly on defense. However, since winning the final in Vegas, the Lakers have fallen off considerably, losing eight of their last 10 games to fall below .500 at 17-18.
The most concerning part of their recent skid is it’s coming while their two stars, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, are healthy and playing. While they have injuries around those two, the Lakers cannot afford to struggle when their two best players are available and playing at a relatively high level. As the Lakers have continued losing, fans have expressed their frustrations with the lineup and rotation choices of head coach Darvin Ham, and it appears those frustrations are shared by those in the locker room.
After a 110-96 loss to the Heat on Wednesday night, in which the Lakers started yet another new starting lineup, The Athletic’s Jovan Buha and Shams Charania published a report about a “deepening disconnect” between the Lakers and Ham in the locker room that has led to questions about his standing with the team.
There’s currently a deepening disconnect between Darvin Ham and the Lakers locker room, six sources with direct knowledge of the situation say, raising questions about the head coach’s standing. The people spoke with The Athletic on condition of anonymity so that they could speak freely on the matter. Those sources have described that the disjointedness between the coach and team has stemmed from the extreme rotation and starting lineup adjustments recently from Ham, leading to a fluctuating rhythm for several players across the roster.
Ham cited the injuries around the stars as a reason they’ve struggled to find a rhythm of late, noting that it’s difficult to define roles and minutes when injuries force changes to the rotation. That’s certainly true, but it’s still incumbent on the coaching staff to figure out how to better communicate the plan before each game, particularly if players can’t seem to figure out the reasoning behind changes. With a month left before the trade deadline, it will be very interesting to see how the Lakers proceed because with roles changing and inconsistencies in the rotation, it’s difficult to identify exactly what the problem areas are and how best to solve them.
Source: https://uproxx.com/dimemag/lakers-darvin-ham-disconnect-starting-lineup-rotation-decisions-losing-streak/