According to NBA insider Anthony Irwin of Lakers Daily, Los Angeles Lakers players are annoyed with head coach Darvin Ham‘s lack of accountability.
Several sources have voiced annoyance with how often Ham’s public and private theme boils down to work ethic, discipline and toughness, all things in the players’ control.
“We couldn’t do s— against Miami’s zone and we have LeBron,” one source told Irwin. “After the game, it was all, ‘We gotta do this, players gotta do that.’ Not once did we hear about coaches not knowing what to do against a 2-3.”
After the Lakers erased a 21-point deficit to beat the Los Angeles Clippers on February 28 and LAC head coach Tyronn Lue took responsibility for the loss, one LAL source texted Irwin, “Wait. Coaches can do that?”
The Lakers are only 33-29 on the season despite having LeBron James and Anthony Davis, two of the best players in the NBA. They are in 10th place in the Western Conference standings.
If the season ended today, the Lakers would need to win two games in the play-in tournament to make the 2024 postseason as the eighth seed.
Under Ham, the Lakers are 12th in the NBA in points per game and 21st in points per game allowed this season.
Per Irwin, LeBron “rolls his eyes” when Ham talks during timeouts. The King spends most timeouts staring into the void and hardly interacts with Ham at all.
“He sits in the huddle and gets his rest/water, rolls his eyes as Ham speaks and waits for the huddle to break,” one source close to the situation told Irwin. “If Ham ever does draw up a play, as soon as the huddle breaks, James will tell everyone else on the court with him ‘f— all that’ and calls a play of his own.”
