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The LA Lakers closed 2023 with two wins in their last nine games. The team's struggles have critics pondering whether Darvin Ham is the right personnel to coach the Lakers. LA entered the year as one of the favorites because of their excellent offseason.
They have the size, shooting and depth, but none has been optimized. While injuries to key role players have played its part, Ham's decisions have also been questionable. He benched Austin Reaves and has limited his minutes to 28 per game despite the third-year guard being the Lakers' third-best player.
Meanwhile, Christian Wood, who averaged 16.6 points and 7.3 rebounds on 52/38/77 splits last year, has collected ample DNPs. His minutes have been inconsistent despite the Lakers having the room to use a floor-spacing center amid their shooting woes.
Rui Hachimura, who signed a $51 million deal this summer, also doesn't have an established role. Ham's emphasis on prioritizing size and length over 3-point shooting lately, with a new starting lineup featuring LeBron James, Cam Reddish, Taurean Prince, Jarred Vanderbilt and Anthony Davis, hasn't worked, either.
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With the team dropping to 17-17, there's been a lot of talk about Ham's future and the LA Lakers fans on X (formerly Twitter) wanting him gone. Doc Rivers was a name proposed as a replacement, which saw mixed reactions from the Lakers faithful.
"We really down bad huh?" wrote one X user.
More reactions followed:
LA Lakers suffer blowout loss as team drops to .500 as team's fans root for Darvin Ham's firing
Darvin Ham is unlikely to be in the hot seat due to the trust the LA Lakers brass has in him. Ham guided the team to a conference final run last year despite starting the season 2-10, so the optimism makes sense. However, the Lakers have had too many highs and lows already, but of late, the latter has dominated. They have dropped to 17-17 after their latest loss, which could cause some panic.
LA's woeful stretch continued on New Year's Eve as they lost 129-109 to the New Orleans Pelicans, the team they beat by a 44-point margin on Dec. 8 in Las Vegas.
The LA Lakers looked lethargic and disconnected for most of the game. They succumbed to a 17-point deficit by halftime. The Lakers got close multiple times in the second half as Austin Reaves started for the injured Rui Hachmiura. Reaves had 17 of his 20 points in the last two quarters, the highest on the team.
Darvin Ham's questionable coaching was again in the spotlight because of Reaves' performance.
The third-year guard starting next to LeBron James and Anthony Davis gave the Lakers a dynamic edge in the second half, and that could translate if Reaves is in the starting lineup to start the game, too.
However, Ham seems adamant about making his new all-wings and AD lineup work, so the LA Lakers faithful might have to wait to see what Reaves' could look like in the starting lineup alongside more defensive depth.
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