Los Angeles Lakers

Although the Lakers’ past free agent signings have been controversial, at least their operations in 2023 have received positive reviews from most experts and media. However, after the start of the season, the record was not as expected, and even showed a significant decline recently. Although the team did not collapse like an avalanche, what is worrying is that the performance of each game seems to be more and more disjointed…

The Lakers have lost 9 of the past 12 games, and their current winning rate has dropped by 50% and ranks 10th in the Western Conference. For the Lakers who won the first mid-season championship, everything seems not to be like this.

After the trade deadline of the 2022-23 season, the Lakers reshaped their lineup and quickly integrated it, and advanced all the way to the Western Conference Championship in the playoffs. Although they were swept by the Golden Nuggets, the team was obviously back on track after a turn. .

The Lakers lineup has been rejuvenated and has depth around the two main pillars, LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Darvin Ham has done an excellent job maintaining stability both on and off the court in his first role as head coach, and everything seems to be going in the right direction.

In the 2023 offseason, the Lakers tried to invest in the core lineup, including signing back Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura, and also signing Jarred Vanderbilt to strengthen the wing defense. This is a very different offseason for the Lakers. The operation is different from the past strategy that mainly focused on grabbing stars.

Although past free agent signings have been controversial, at least the operations in 2023 have received positive reviews from most experts and media. However, after the start of the season, the record was not as expected, and even showed a significant decline recently. Although the team did not collapse like an avalanche, what is worrying is that the performance of each game seems to be increasingly disjointed.

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Ups and downs in performance are normal in professional games, and they will happen from time to time even for teams as strong as championship teams, but the Lakers’ situation is one of continuous accumulation of incoherence that is hard to ignore.

Although the main lineup has been playing together for a while, the players still look confused, confused and sometimes too indifferent on the court. These are signs of disaster on the court, and the players also unanimously expressed their agreement with the head coach’s voice. dissipate.

According to Jovan Buha and Shams Charania of “The Athletic,” multiple sources with interviews with the team discussed Ham’s current relationship with Lakers players.

According to six sources with direct knowledge of the situation, there is a growing disconnect between Ham and the Lakers locker room, even to the point of challenging his position as head coach. The main reason is that Ham made extreme adjustments to the lineup and starting lineup, and this adjustment caused many players to be unable to adjust their rhythm.

Ham will change the lineup and allocate time from time to time this season, which also makes many core players unable to adapt. Ham has also had many controversial arrangements. The Lakers’ most used lineup this season is Russell, Cam Reddish, Taurean Prince, James and Davis. They played 350 rounds together, ranking 19th in the league. The second most used lineup only played 270 rounds. (The Rockets’ most used lineup this season has reached more than 900 times)

Ham’s most extreme arrangement right now is to put the two main backcourt players, Reaves and Russell, on the bench and switch to Cam Reddish and Vanderbilt, who are more defensive in starting.

Although the latter combination can provide more defensive rotations, versatility and size advantages, their offensive efficiency on the court has dropped significantly compared to Reaves and Russell. Reddish’s shooting and three-point shooting percentages were only 39% and 32 respectively. %, Vanderbilt is even worse, only 36% and 11%. The points they blocked cannot catch up with the offensive points.

Therefore, this scheduling is confusing. The Lakers’ offense is no longer particularly outstanding, and removing guards who can attack and distribute the ball on their own will only make the offensive efficiency worse.

Extended reading: The Lakers’ rotation puzzle needs to be re-examined.

Although there was a lot of optimism at the beginning of the season and after winning the mid-season championship, it was believed that the Lakers would eventually succeed. However, the Lakers’ team offensive efficiency currently ranks eighth in the league, their 35.5% team three-point field goal percentage ranks seventh from the bottom, and their open outside field goal percentage ranks bottom. It is obvious that there are problems with the operation of the overall offensive system.

In addition, Ham’s various decisions, such as sinking the defensive system, haphazard rotations, the changing roles of Rui Hachimura and Reaves, the failure of the 5-out offensive system and the unbalanced offensive strategy of focusing on the inside, all failed to allow the Lakers to recover. Best state.

Although it seems easy to put all the blame on Ham, this is not a situation that can be caused by one person’s fault.

However, Ham is the key figure in knowing who is on the floor and how it is structured. From a good perspective, the positioning of the Lakers’ core players is clear, but from another perspective, the balance of players’ personal abilities is unbalanced. Reaves and Russell are obviously better at offense than defense, while Reddish and Vanderbilt are at the other end of the scale. It will make the coach’s scheduling more difficult.

But this is the problem and responsibility that Ham must solve. “We have to rediscover the rhythm and integration method. Because of injuries and ups and downs, our players often move in and out of the rotation. This allows them to find the rhythm and It’s not easy, that’s the real problem,” Ham said.

2024-01-13 10:57:48

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