2. Stop playing Russell Westbrook and Dennis Schroder together
Dennis Schroder’s place on the Los Angeles Lakers is a very odd one. Signed very late in the offseason, it was reported that the Lakers were waiting to sign Schroder until they could move Russell Westbrook in a trade.
Schroder was essentially meant to be the team’s Russell Westbrook replacement as a bench guard who could help run the offense. Instead, Los Angeles now has both Schroder and Westbrook and they are rather redundant.
This is why it does not make very much sense that Ham is playing the two guards together. Schroder also just returned from a thumb injury so maybe we can give Ham the benefit of the doubt but we have already seen enough to know that this pairing does not work when they are on the floor together.
Small sample size (though I don't think a larger one is needed here)... Russ and Schröder have played 46 minutes together this season. The Lakers have carried a 106.7 ORTG and 124.5 DRTG (-17.8 net). This is not something we needed to see to figure out if it was going to suck.
— Anthony F. Irwin (@AnthonyIrwinLA) November 29, 2022
It doesn’t work. It never looked like it was going to work on paper and Ham somehow had to see it play out in person to see that it actually doesn’t work. Again, the options are limited, I get that, but the Lakers can absolutely still throw out a bench unit that does not have two redundant guards on the floor at the same time.
This might mean reducing Schroder’s playing time, reducing Westbrook’s playing time, or even reducing both players’ playing time. Whatever Ham has to do, he has to avoid putting these two on the floor together.