The Los Angeles Lakers were expected to be one of the premier title contenders in the NBA this season. As long as LeBron James and Anthony Davis stayed healthy, the Lakers were supposed to have the team's best regular season since winning the title in 2020.
Los Angeles has got healthy seasons out of Davis and LeBron but the results have not followed. The Lakers are just four games above .500 and are in the 10th seed in the West. Barring an uncharacteristic turnaround, the purple and gold are destined to be in the Play-In Tournament for the third time in four years.
While the rest of the rotation has been banged up at various times throughout the season, that is not the main reason for the Lakers' struggles. Instead, the spotlight has been solely on head coach Darvin Ham, who has already been receiving subtle jabs from his most prominent player.
Davis joined in with his teammates after Wednesday's loss to the Sacramento Kings. While Davis did not call out Ham by name, his comments about the team not being prepared defensively said the quiet part out loud.
This is an interesting answer from AD: "Some of the things we were in defensively... allowed De'Aaron Fox, Malik Monk to get whatever they want." (via @SpectrumSN) pic.twitter.com/C2OOfU8r9f
— Anthony F. Irwin (@AnthonyIrwinLA) March 7, 2024
Anthony Davis fires not-so-subtle jab at Darvin Ham after Lakers' loss
It does not take a rocket scientist to see how discontent AD is in this video. From his body languge and tone of his voice to what he is actually saying, it is clear that the star big man was not happy with what the Lakers were doing defensively against Sacramento.
Unfortunately, this has been a trend for the Lakers all season. Despite having enough talent to hang with and beat the best teams in the league, the Lakers are never prepared schematically. Los Angeles has relied on hero ball to win games this season and that simply is not sustainable.
While having players who can win games with big performances is huge, relying on that as the team's only method of victory is dangerous. It is never going to work in a playoff series, and quite frankly, is the most damning piece of evidence against Ham this season.
Some coaches are great assistant coaches and not good head coaches. Ham firmly falls in that bucket. He was great as an assistant coach who related to the players and got them to buy in on both ends of the floor. But as someone who has to draw up schemes and come up with rotations, Ham has missed the mark by a wide margin.
After all of the passive-aggressive shots at Ham and the lack of success this season, don't be surprised if the Lakers move on to a new head coach this summer.