ESPN Writer Singles out Real Culprit for Lakers Mess and It’s Not Darvin Ham https://t.co/4vQsOfPnF3 via @heavysan
— LakerTom (@LakerTom) April 27, 2024
Los Angeles Lakers coach Darvin Ham is getting a lot of heat on social media for the team’s inability to solve the Denver Nuggets riddle.
But for ESPN writer Tim Bontemps, the beleaguered coach is just the scapegoat.
“I’m not gonna sit here, Brian [Windhorst] and try to say Darvin Ham has done a perfect job. But let’s look at what to me the real problem with the Lakers is, which is the roster isn’t good enough, which is why they’ve lost [12] times in a row to the Denver Nuggets,” Bontemps said on the “Hoop Collective” podcast on April 26.
The real blame, according to Bontemps, for this Lakers mess should be on Rob Pelinka, the team’s vice president for basketball operations and general manager.
“Rob Pelinka was the one who traded Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who’s beating them now with the Denver Nuggets for Russell Westbrook,” Bontemps continued. “[Pelinka] was the guy who chose D’Angelo Russell over Mike Conley in the second Russell Westbrook trade.[Pelinka] was the guy who chose Talen Horton-Tucker over Alex Caruso and also just decided not to pay Alex Caruso whose under-market value contract at the time has only grown in that regard over the past few years with the Chicago Bulls.”
The seasoned NBA writer, who also wrote for The Washington Post early in his career, added more to the long list of what he thought was Pelinka’s blunders as the top decision maker for the Lakers organization:
-Picking Jalen Hood-Schifino over the likes of Brandin Podziemski, Cam Whitmore and Jaime Jaquez Jr.
-Signing Gabe Vincent, who barely played this season with knee injury
-Turning down options on Malik Beasley and Mo Bamba which could have been expiring large contracts to make a move this season
Simply Not Good Enough Roster
Bontemps, however, clarified that Ham should come out unscathed.
“I’m not saying Darvin Ham is perfect,” Bontemps said. “Not saying he’s the second coming of red Auerbach. When you look at what’s going on with the Lakers, this team is not good enough. They have two great players in Anthony Davis and LeBron James. And those guys combined to play 147 games this season. The fact that this team is in the play-in mix because of that means the rest of this team around them is simply not good enough to be with the Lakers [and go where they] expect to be which is contending for Western Conference titles and [NBA] championships.”
He’s right in that. Bad decision after bad decision here. Particularly Westbrook. That decision pushed for by Lebron, AD, and the rest of the Klutch mafia was the nail in the competitive coffin for this squad. Drafting poorly and consistently picking the wrong guys to throw your MLE at only compounded things, but this post-Dr. Buss leadership is going on about a dozen years of misses. Outside Lebron deciding he wanted to live in LA, the Lakers would be going on almost 15 year of irrelevance.
But the other side of the coin is Lebron is simply not good enough any more either. You put Jokic at the head of the roster in his place today, and he’s elevating the other 3 to levels no one thought they’d have been capable of previously. He’ll put them in the best places to succeed and consistently bail them out when he needs to. The overall talent level in the middle of these two squads isn’t that far apart, but the talent at the top is lightyears ahead.