The Lakers’ win last night against the Oklahoma City Thunder without LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and D’Angelo Russell was nothing short of a ‘must win’ game Los Angeles needed to keep their playoff dreams alive.
With LeBron James out for at least half and possibly the rest of the regular season, the Lakers’ rapidly diminishing hopes of making the playoffs and enjoying a championship run are now hanging by the thinnest of threads.
Realistically, the Lakers’ only remaining path to the playoffs is an inspired Davis taking the baton from an injured James and somehow, someway finding a way to win enough games to make the Play-In Tournament.
With LeBron’s return uncertain, the season is now in the hands of Darvin Ham. The Lakers will live or die on his ability to motivate players, play the right lineups and rotations, make the right adjustments, and win a title.
Frankly, it will take a perfect storm of good-news wins and injury-free games for Ham and the Lakers to even have a shot at making the playoffs but the parity in the West still leaves the door open for a Lakers run.
So let’s take a hard look at how Darvin Ham has grown over the past year and see if his coaching strengths as a motivator, lineup and rotation creator, and in-game adjuster have become good enough to win a ring.
Ham’s Motivational Ability?
Darvin Ham’s greatest strength and asset as a basketball coach is his ability to build strong personal relationships with his players and convince them to buy in to his vision of how the game of basketball should be played.
Earlier in the season, we saw Ham’s interpersonal skills first hand as he convinced Westbrook to come off the bench and motivated Davis and then James to elevate their games and carry the team while the other was out.
More importantly, Ham was able to motivate the players on the Lakers’ roster to play hard and compete. There were very few of the blowouts that marked Frank Vogel’s last season. Lakers were gritty bunch under Ham.
We saw more of the kind of job Darvin Ham has done integrating the six new Lakers players in the big win over the OKC Thunder last night without their top three stars in LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and D’Angelo Russell.
Ham played basically a 9-man rotation with a few throw-in minutes for Max Christie. The Lakers won 123–117 with Schroder, Brown, and Reaves all playing big roles and 9 of the 10 Lakers who played scoring over 5 points.
Despite six new players and missing his three best players, Darvin Ham had the Lakers ready to win last night and his ability to get players to buy in and play hard for him bodes well for the Lakers’ LeBron-less stretch run.
Ham’s Lineups and Rotations?
It’s hard to fairly evaluate Darvin Ham’s early lineups and rotations because of the flawed roster given him by Rob Pelinka and the Lakers’ front office. Having said that, Ham’s rookie rotations likely cost the Lakers a few losses.
While Anthony Davis will be the key to whether the Lakers can finish the regular season and make the playoffs without LeBron James, rookie head coach Darvin Ham’s lineup and rotation decisions will be just as critical.
The hope after the trade deadline was the new-look Lakers would be able to finish the season with a consistent starting lineup of D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, LeBron James, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Anthony Davis.
With James possibly not returning until the playoffs and no timeframe set yet for Russell’s return, Ham will be responsible for deciding who replaces James and Russell to start and close and who will be in the main rotation.
Hopefully, the new-look roster is better balanced and has more options for size, shooting, and defense at every position that Ham should find it much easier to develop a solid starting and closing lineup and related rotations.
Ham will need to shake his rookie jitters and make sound decisions on who will start and close games and be in his middle of game rotations, which should be much easier now that the roster has been completely rebuilt.
Ham’s In-Game Adjustments?
Making in-game adjustments is clearly Darvin Ham’s greatest area that needs improvement. While it is an expected weakness for a rookie head coach, it’s also what Ham needs to improve most for the Lakers to win.
It appears part of Ham’s coaching philosophy is to focus on doing what the team should be doing before giving up and changing strategy or scheme, which has been a criticism his mentor Mike Budenholzer has also heard.
Ham was justifiably criticized for waiting until the fourth quarter to try having Jarred Vanderbilt defend Ja Morant after he torched the Lakers for 28 points in the third quarter. Or for having AD stop playing drop coverage.
Lately, however, there have been some good positive signs that Ham is starting to be less reluctant to try changes to mix things up. He went to the zone against the Thunder and the players he closed with won the game.
Darvin also deserves credit for how he handled Schroder’s embarrassing quitting in the middle of a play in the closing minutes of the 4th quarter. Ham immediately pulled Dennis and got him ready to go last night.
Darvin Ham’s still going to make rookie mistakes but he’s learning fast and has increasingly shown to be capable of handling what is obviously a very challenging head coaching job. His in-game adjustments are improving.
Ham’s Chances To Win Championship?
The one thing that gives Lakers fans the most hope Darvin Ham can lead this team to the playoffs and beyond ishow hard players play for him and how they never quit, whether superstars and back-end-of-rotation guys.
Last night Lakers win over the Thunder without LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and D’Angelo Russell and with five new players who weren’t here a week ago in the rotation was a tribute to the hard work of Darvin Ham.
The Lakers were not only ready to play but ready to win without their stars. Game balls to Dennis Schroder, Troy Brown, Jr., and Austin Reaves, who bounced back great after tough games in the Grizzlies’ loss in Memphis.
There’s been considerable controversy about the Lakers having Anthony Davis take a long-term planned ‘load management’ game off last night after Darvin Ham had said all of his players would play every game unless hurt.
In the end, critics thought the Lakers should have had AD sit out against the Grizzlies but play against the Thunder. The alternative, which makes more sense, is the Lakers played Davis against Denver hoping to win both games.
The Lakers are understandably moving towards more load management for James and Davis to keep them fresher and heathier. Ham’s development of the rest of the roster could be the key to the Lakers winning #18.
Darvin did a near perfect job getting the team ready and making smart substitutions all night long. What impressed me most was our ability to hang close enough to then close out and win the game going away. Well done, Darvin.
I mean…players health probably looms larger than Ham’s ability to motivate or X’s and O’s but this is definitely up there in terms of what needs to break right.
Can’t make anymore last two minute blunders in terms of play calling, not using time outs, and continue to manage his challenges well. He’s been fine in all those areas and pretty darn good in terms of when he deploys the coaches challenge.
Some of this will also track back to the players on the team and their level of professionalism. Of course you want to come out of this season with a raise and that’s not necessarily going to come from the Lakers as they will have some sort of internally installed spending ceiling. Guys like Schroder, Reaves and biggest of all D’Angelo Russell are going to, on some level, be thinking about that next deal. Ham needs them to buy into what we need them to do now and they need to buy in at a high level. That can be a challenge in and of itself.
The health thing… I dunno man, we have a new training staff, we’ve rested AD and LeBron a decent amount, I think AD is just fragile and LeBron is just old and that’s kinda that. So, whatever else he can squeeze out of the rest of the roster will really define his coaching job.
The in-game adjustments are, in my opinion, the hardest to judge because they’re defined by the in-game situations which aren’t static like the players or his basic strategies as a coach. He’s been OK with the in-game adjustments, but he’s also made some really questionable choices.
All in all, I’d probably rank Darvin as the 3rd reason as to why we won’t or will make the playin. I don’t think we get to the playoffs without LeBron but it’s certainly a mathematical possibility at this point. The health of AD and the professionalism and internal motivation of the players comes second (and Ham has some influence e over that for sure) come before the job a coach does.
With LeBron out I think the biggest challenge is finding chemistry. Since the trade it’s been like pre season with just the games and no practice. Confusion on defense, missed assignments, confusion on transition defense, spacing issues on offense and passes to no one. This is all because the guys haven’t played together. Yet we are 5-2 since the trade. Looking at the schedule I think we have enough talent to make the playoffs if we can get DLO back soon and learn how to play together. That’s the toughest task for sure.
Michael, everyone of you made a good point. But I would say that the issue of chemistry is the biggest problem. That is primarily the reason for those 26 turnovers against Memphis. That has to be expected. But I also expect that to subside once they get to know each other’s tendencies.
Little off the subject, but NBA has got to lengthen the season (not more games) and give players a chance to rest. All these guys like LBJ, AD, KD, Booker, Ja, KAT, Curry, etc. are getting hurt too often! Bodies need time to recoup!
DJ, while I agree with your opinion, I also think it won’t be fair to the older generations who had been there and done that. I am against changing anything. Let the players of this generation deal with it. I am not going to feel sorry for them. It’s been there before them.
My thinking is more about the fans paying for high $$ tix and want to see the stars play. My son and I would go to Indy 3 times a year and don’t want to see Lakers without Kobe. NBA can make adjustments just like MLB has this new season (pitch clock bigger bases, etc.
I feel you and I share your concern as well. Things haven’t looked the same ever since Pop and the Spurs invented Load Management.