On Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena, the Los Angeles Lakers had an ideal opportunity to stop the bleeding with the Jimmy Butler-less Miami Heat coming to town to take on LeBron James and company.
The Lakers had dropped two straight games heading into their matchup with the defending Eastern Conference champions, with back-to-back losses to the Minnesota Timberwolves and New Orleans Pelicans. However, the team was relieved to be back in Los Angeles with an opportunity start the new year with a win against a formidable opponent that was shorthanded due to Butler’s foot injury and Caleb Martin battling an ankle issue.
But it was more of the same from the Lakers, with head coach Darvin Ham unable to get his team back on track on their home floor. The Lakers’ loss was their 18th of the season and dropped them below .500 at 17-18.
It seems as though the loss, which is the team’s ninth in the last 12 games, has caused some major reasons for concern when it comes to Ham’s job status. It appears he may have lost the locker room due to questionable decisions with rotations and lineup changes as of late.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, there’s currently a disconnect between Ham and his players, which doesn’t bode well for his long-term status as Lakers head coach:
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.
Although the Lakers are going through a rough patch right now, this isn’t anything the team hasn’t already gone experienced with Ham at the helm. Last year, Ham started off his stint as head coach in the worst way, with only two wins in his first 12 games and the team looking lost.
However, time is of the essence this year, with James turning 39 last month and the Lakers heading into a downward spiral. Patience is running thin:
These Lakers have gone through their share of adversity through Ham’s nearly two years as head coach, including a 2-10 start a season ago that finished with a Western Conference finals berth. So Ham, in the second year of a four-year coaching contract, has shown an ability to get through to his players. But time is of the essence around the 39-year-old James and Davis, and as Ham has tinkered with lineups and adjustments across the past few weeks, patience is beginning to run thin.
The real question moving forward is whether the Lakers front office would be willing to make a coaching change at the halfway point of the 2023-24 NBA regular season or will vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka try to make a trade to shake things up and then reassess Ham’s status as head coach.
A lot can happen between now and the NBA trade deadline on February 8, but the pressure is mounting with Ham potentially being the fall guy if the Lakers can’t turn this thing around and do it quickly.
Darvin Ham: Lakers need to ‘band together’ to overcome struggles
Even before the loss to the Heat, frustrations were already mounting after a rough December that was filled with a lot of travel and injuries.
Ham had already stressed the need for the Lakers to ‘band together’ to overcome their struggles, which they clearly were not able to do against the Heat.
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