Will he go the way of Frank Vogel sooner rather than later?
First-year Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham has generally not been the subject of fan ire during the team’s unhappy 14-21 start. After all, he didn’t construct the roster. He may have some say in the team’s personnel moves, but he’s not the person responsible for flipping three role players and a future rookie under team control in exchange for Russell Westbrook’s overpriced contract.
But that’s all changed now.
After the Lakers botched a comeback attempt against the Miami Heat in the fourth quarter (the final margin: 112-98), L.A. fans took to chastising Ham for some of his rotational decisions.
One of the most confounding decisions for anyone sitting through the slog that’s been this Lakers season so far has been Ham’s repeated insistence on starting Patrick Beverley, either at point guard or shooting guard, when evidence is mounting that the 6’1″ former 3-and-D specialist can no longer bring it on the “3” side of the equation.
While playing for 27:35 in the Heat loss, Beverley actually went 2-of-5 from long range, and made no other shots. He finished with six points. Not great for your starting “shooting” guard. He did chip in seven rebounds, four assists, a steal and a block, but also posted a -13 on the night, while occasionally being forced to guard much, much taller Heat foes. The 6’1″ vet is connecting on just 31.6% of his 3.4 treys a night.
The 6’6″ Brown, who’s proven to be a versatile perimeter defender for L.A. and an inefficient present around the basket, scored 14 points while shooting 5-of-6 from the field (4-of-5 from three) during his 20:55 off the bench. Brown, by the way, is shooting 35.5% from long range on 2.9 tries a night, his best-ever three-point numbers.
Ham also came under fire for choosing to not sub out Russell Westbrook for 17 consecutive minutes at one point. Westbrook is clearly the team’s most important point guard on a roster full of point guards, though this writer for one agrees with the idea that he plays better away from James, so the idea of staggering their minutes still principally is solid.
Others proved less-than-fond of Ham’s rotations.
One name floated as a possibility to replace Ham is recent Utah Jazz head coach Quin Snyder.
Darvin Ham’s in-game offensive adjustments also came under fire:
One fan, a bit unfairly, held nothing back in their assessment of Ham relative to the rest of the NBA’s head coaches:
Another fan, reacting perhaps to LeBron James’s aggrieved postgame remarks to assembled press, predicted that Ham could end the season the way former Lakers head coach Frank Vogel did: being booted from the Lakers as the scapegoat for the front office’s poorly constructed roster..
