To the surprise of few, the Los Angeles Lakers lost another game on Friday night. Los Angeles has been dreadful since winning the In-Season Tournament and with the loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, the Lakers have fallen to 17-19 on the season.
Being two games under .500 at this juncture is unacceptable considering the fact that both LeBron James and Anthony Davis have been relatively healthy. Sure, the Lakers have dealt with injuries to the rotation but every single team in the league has to deal with injuries to role players.
This dreadful run has warmed up Darvin Ham's seat to the point that Shams Charania and Jovan Buha of The Athletic felt comfortable reporting about the team's disconnect in the locker room. Ham is certainly starting to feel the pressure and after yet another loss, the second-year head coach is starting to provide some very interesting quotes.
Darvin Ham: “I’m tired of people living and dying with every game we play … This is a marathon”
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) January 6, 2024
Darvin Ham sounds like someone who knows the Lakers are going to fire him
Did Darvin Ham miss the memo that he is coaching the Los Angeles Lakers? This is not the Atlanta Hawks or Milwaukee Bucks. Ham does not have Mike Budenholzer — who is unemployed by the way — to fall back on. This is the Los Angeles Lakers and the expectations are rightfully high. What part of that does Ham not understand?
Sure, it can be annoying when fans and the media overreact about a loss in early January but this is not just one loss in early January. This is continuing a string of horrible basketball that is being played all while Ham sits at the scorer's table and watches with his hands in his pockets.
It does not matter what sport it is, it is not hard to tell when a coach starts to lose a locker room. One of the first signs is how the coaches interact with the media. Sometimes, you have guys like Brandon Staley who blow up at reporters just weeks before being fired. Other times, you have guys like Ham, who is seemingly living in this fantasy world while his team struggles.
Ham is tired of people living and dying with every game the Lakers play and Lakers fans are tired of the subpar product that they are watching. There are absolutely no excuses for the Lakers to be this bad this season. With an ever-shrinking championship window, Ham does not have time to use the marathon excuse.
Ham sounds like someone who is getting caught up in the whirlwind and knows that if he does not turn it around his time will be limited. And quite frankly, he deserves that reality.