Inside a Lakers season gone wrong and what’s next for LeBron James, Darvin Ham https://t.co/j3FGZdpSkz
— LakerTom (@LakerTom) April 30, 2024
Midway through the fourth quarter of a “road” game against the rival LA Clippers on Feb. 28, with the Los Angeles Lakers having cut a lead that was once as much as 21 points in the fourth quarter down to five, a question arose within the team’s player-led huddle.
Why are we running plays to have LeBron James attack a former Defensive Player of the Year in Kawhi Leonard if the Clippers are willingly switching big man Daniel Theis onto him in screening actions?
The answer, provided by multiple players whom team sources say spoke up in the huddle, would provide the key to that night’s comeback win in those final five-plus minutes.
Anthony Davis would set the high screen to prompt the switch, with D’Angelo Russell as the “high man” and Rui Hachimura in the strong-side corner. If a double-team came James’ way, Russell would flash across the lane and open up a potential dunk for Davis or a 3-pointer for Hachimura in the corner. The plan worked to near perfection, with Theis taking over for Leonard six times down the stretch and James picking the opposition apart from there as the Lakers finished the game on a 15-6 run to win 116-112.
During this fourth quarter, in which James scored or assisted on 11 of the Lakers’ 13 field goals, seven weeks after the job security of second-year coach Darvin Ham had become a major storyline of their season, the irony of the Clippers’ ending wasn’t lost on several Lakers players. They had, in their minds, won the game on their own.
It had been one step forward, two steps back for the Lakers over the two-plus months since their In-Season Tournament championship. But this, as some players saw it, was a sign of the locker room coming together in an attempt to salvage a challenging situation with the head coach with whom they often didn’t connect. Their self-empowerment, it seemed, was born out of the perceived absence of effective direction from the coaching staff.
This moment, one of many in which these Lakers felt compelled to find their own solutions, summed up a season that began with high hopes after their Western Conference finals appearance against Denver last year, but ended with another ouster at the hands of the Nuggets. And by the time the Lakers’ season ended in Game 5 against Denver on Monday night, when Jamal Murray’s second game-winner of the first-round series sent the Lakers home less than a year after the Nuggets swept them last May, there were strong signs within the organization that Ham would be deemed most responsible.
The Lakers’ unflattering finish leaves Ham’s future as head coach in serious peril, multiple league and team sources tell The Athletic, with some stakeholders indicating it’s highly unlikely he’ll return. The plan is to reassess everything that went wrong in the coming days before making a final decision. In 2022, Ham signed a four-year deal in the range of $5 million per season, so the team would be assuming the remainder of his deal if he is fired.
“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.”
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. 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 Lakers’ blown 20-point lead in Game 2 of the Denver series served as a final straw of sorts. After a successful first year as coach in which he showed signs as a leader of players, the tide turned for Ham this season. There was tremendous respect for Ham as a person, and players had an appreciation for his pro career and time as an assistant coach in Atlanta and Milwaukee. But, as one player said recently, “We need to be coached, too.
From above article:
Will LeBron stay in Laker Land?
Coming off his 21st NBA season, James is expected to play up to two more NBA seasons, one source briefed on his thinking said. He has a $51.4 million player option for the 2024-25 season. Two more seasons would take James through the 2026 All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles.
It’s anticipated James, ahead of his June 29 option date, will want to see how the Lakers manage the offseason and their approach to building the roster around him and Davis. Both routes — opting in and opting out — are on the table for James. He places importance on having comprehensive and well-rounded depth around him, which could mean the Lakers explore trades in the lead-up to that player option, sandwiched between the NBA Draft, which begins June 26, and the opening of free agency on June 30.
What’s more, team sources say the Lakers are very open to the prospect of helping LeBron fulfill his dream of playing with his son Bronny by potentially drafting him.
“My last year will be played with my son,” James famously told The Athletic in 2022.
LeBron changed his message in January 2023, telling ESPN that he would consider that family goal fulfilled so long as he shared the floor with Bronny “either in the same uniform or a matchup against him.” In the wake of Bronny’s cardiac arrest episode in July, he had an uneven freshman season at USC. His hard-to-handicap NBA future remains a topic of great debate, but rival teams believe it is not a matter of if he is a draft pick, but whether the selection range, location and fit are enough to keep him in the draft.
As for his father, the Lakers want him back — badly — and the potential of the 39-year-old LeBron returning remains the most likely scenario. Lakers owner Jeanie Buss, in particular, believes James’ return is of paramount importance to their plan. This franchise has always been buoyed by the stars, and James’ ability to still play at an elite level at his advanced age has only strengthened the desire to have him retire in a purple-and-gold jersey one day. And after six seasons together in which there has been no shortage of ups and downs, Buss and James, team sources say, have a relationship that is better than ever these days.
The Lakers, team sources say, would be open to discussing any deal that involves James coming back — including even the maximum three-year, $164 million extension they can offer. Playing through a three-year deal would put him at 42 by the end of the contract.
“He’s not the problem here,” one high-ranking Lakers official said of LeBron.
He is, in fact, still seen as a major part of the solution.
From above article:
Where did Darvin Ham go wrong?
In the eyes of the Lakers’ top decision-makers, the combination of last season’s West finals appearance and December’s In-Season Tournament championship were signs this roster was worthy of contention. The pressure was on Ham to make the most of it. But just as the momentum started to build, with the stability the organization had longed for in Ham’s tenure within reach, the Lakers’ skid began.
They lost 10 out of 13 games after the In-Season Tournament, with two four-game losing streaks during that stretch and losses to teams such as San Antonio, Chicago, Memphis and Miami (without Jimmy Butler) that they would later pay so dearly for in the standings. The disconnect between Ham and his locker room was detailed by The Athletic in an early January report, but the ownership support that he spoke openly about at the time played a pivotal part in the organization’s choice to continue with him on the bench.
The Lakers were largely healthy during that stretch — only Russell (four games) and Gabe Vincent (12 games) missed notable time from their normal rotation. Outside of that period, the team went 44-25, a 52-win pace. If the Lakers had won a few more of those games during that stretch, they would’ve finished at least sixth in the West, which would’ve kept them out of the Play-In Tournament and from facing Denver in the first round.
During the 13-game skid, the Lakers used six starting lineups, including two variations of an all-wing lineup — James, Davis, Taurean Prince, Vanderbilt and either Cam Reddish or Hachimura — for five games (the team went 2-3). The decision to bench both Reaves and Russell, the team’s consensus third- and fourth-best players, did not sit well with many within the organization and locker room, according to team and league sources.
Ham’s decision was viewed as a panic move that backfired, a divergence from the team’s stated goals of developing reps and continuity with the core players and groups from last season. Instead, those lineups and groupings didn’t play as much as they could have, even as bench or closing lineups.
The obvious silver lining in the Lakers first round exit does appear to be a decision to fire Darvin Ham and bring in a high quality elite coach even if it costs a lot of money. That is great news that the Lakers are not going to stick with Darvin Ham.
https://twitter.com/Klutch_23/status/1785181913293943072
Definition of insanity = doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
https://twitter.com/TheLakersReview/status/1785184733535871173
https://twitter.com/iDude14/status/1785305460910035430
Who’s the elite coach? Trae Young, minus the pieces you have to send out, along with the Lebron and AD deals puts you over the cap with 3 players and the Jetsam Flotsam you have left over. How does that team fare any better than this year’s squad?