**LA LAKERS THREAD** Sitting on 17! 2023-2024 offseason begins

[Mister Meaner]

I’m having fun just sitting back & watching y’all realize the team ain’t ****.

I’ll carry on.

 

[tupac003]

We can **** on LaVine and his contract all we want but here’s the truth:

- he’s instantly our best shooter
- he’s instantly our best slasher (Lebron cannot do it for more than 10 drives a game at this point)
- he’s instantly our most athletic backcourt player (cam is very athletic but he can’t put the ball in the basket)
- we don’t have guys who the defense has to worry about man. We all love Reaves but he’s an undrfted slow white dude. He is not enough. I’ve been advocating for Tauren but he’s a career journeyman and yet we’re relying on him like he’s prime Klay Thompson.

The reality of the situation is AD and Bron have played almost every game but the rest of the roster STINKS. there is nobody teams have to gameplan for other than our main 2.

Cam reddish should be out the league but we’re playing him 20 minutes a game. Vando hasn’t looked at the hoop in a month but we’re relying on him.

This roster stinks. We overachieved like a MF last year and I honestly think it was just because everyone was happy we got rid of the bad vibes

I don't disagree with what you said, but he is also injury prone. We want another 40 mil guy that might give us 50 games?

I'm just hoping there are other things cooking because 9 tines out of 10 if it's already reported, it's probably not happening.

 

[noblekane]

Surprise, surprise.

Spoiler

Lakers coach Darvin Ham, players struggling to connect on lineup and rotations

Following their ninth loss in 12 games, the Los Angeles Lakers have hit a new nadir in their season, amplifying concerns about the direction of the season from both inside and outside the organization.

There’s currently a deepening disconnect between Darvin Ham and the Lakers locker room, six sources with direct knowledge of the situation say, raising questions about the head coach’s standing. The people spoke with The Athletic on condition of anonymity so that they could speak freely on the matter. Those sources have described that the disjointedness between the coach and team has stemmed from the extreme rotation and starting lineup adjustments recently from Ham, leading to a fluctuating rhythm for several players across the roster.

The Miami Heat, playing without superstar Jimmy Butler, beat the Lakers 110-96 at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday. The loss dropped Los Angeles to 17-18 — the first time they’ve been below .500 since Nov. 11 — and put them just .001 percentage points above the Golden State Warriors for No. 10 in the Western Conference. The Lakers are 3-9 since winning the In-Season Tournament in Las Vegas on Dec. 9. They’ve lost three games in a row, and Wednesday night’s defeat led to rising turbulence.

In the latest attempt to turn around LA’s skid, Ham used his 10th starting lineup of the season and third in three games: Austin Reaves at point guard, Taurean Prince at shooting guard, Cam Reddish at small forward, LeBron James at power forward and Anthony Davis at center. The Lakers were minus-3 in the 13 minutes the group played together Wednesday against Miami.

The latest lineup change continued a troubling trend as the Lakers have struggled to determine their best lineups or establish continuity this season, regardless of how healthy the team has been. The concern has only grown in recent weeks.

Ham’s decision to bench D’Angelo Russell and start James, Prince, Reddish, Jarred Vanderbilt and Davis in a lineup without a second guard ballhandler beginning Dec. 23 in Oklahoma City was considered a head-scratcher by multiple parties internally, according to sources spoken to for this story.

The Lakers championed their continuity all summer, including bringing back their top-five scorers from the Western Conference finals run (James, Davis, Reaves, Russell and Hachimura, in that order). But more than a third of the way into the season, three of those players – and the team’s third-, fourth- and fifth-highest-paid players in Russell, Hachimura and Reaves, respectively, at that – were coming off the bench. Reaves has been coming off the bench most of the season despite being touted by Ham as a future All-Star over the summer and ranking third on the team in scoring, Russell’s role has shrunk since Las Vegas, and Hachimura’s playing time vacillates on a nightly basis.

After the loss Wednesday, the locker room opened up before Ham addressed the media, which is rare. Davis spoke first, in a soft-spoken, dejected manner, declining to use injuries as an excuse.

“It’s a little bit of everything right now,” Davis said. “We’re not executing. That team played harder than us tonight, executed better than us tonight, more physical than us tonight. We got outworked tonight. So it’s a bit of everything right now. If we keep on this trend, it’s not going to be good for us. So it’s kind of obvious that we have to figure it out sooner than later.

“Guys being out is not an excuse. There are no excuses for us. Like coach said (pregame), we have enough in this locker room to win but we just have to go out and compete.”
During Davis’ availability, James, whose locker is right next to Davis’, dressed and left the locker room without speaking with reporters.

Ham eventually spoke with the media 30 minutes after the buzzer. He continued to state that the Lakers, despite having James, Davis, Reaves and Russell for all but eight games combined, aren’t going to “find any consistency” until they get fully healthy. Hachimura (left calf strain), Russell (tailbone contusion) and Gabe Vincent (left knee surgery) are the three players currently injured.

“We’ve got to get healthy,” Ham said. “… And once you get healthy, guys got to get back into rhythm and we’ve got to find a cohesive unit, a total cohesive rotation that we can go with. When you’re dealing with different guys being in and out of the lineup that frequently, it’s damn-near impossible to find a rhythm. That’s just being real. That’s no slight on anybody.”

Ham then went as far as to suggest that it’s easier to play without a star – like the Heat have been without Butler – than for a team to have multiple rotation players in and out of the lineup, as the Lakers have had for a majority of the season.

“I think the multiples (rotation players) are more impactful than … if you lose one of your big dogs, you’re going to figure out how to try and manage without them,” Ham said. “… And when you have your key role players, your key rotation players – this guy misses three or four. This guy misses three or four. And they’re happening one right after another, that’s what makes it difficult. … We’ve got to figure it out. I’m disappointed, but I’ll be damned if I get discouraged.”

When asked if he would consider going back to the team’s original starting lineup of Russell, Reaves, Vanderbilt, James and Davis, Ham said the team is considering every possibility.

“I think everything is on the table that makes sense,” Ham said. “No stone shall go unturned. We’re here to explore whatever we can to right the ship.”

Meanwhile, Reaves, who spoke after Ham, echoed a similar sentiment to Davis, saying the team can’t use fluctuating lineups as an excuse.

“Regardless of what the lineup is, what change is, whatever happens, we got to be better as a team and go win games,” Reaves said. “We’re more than talented enough to win games. We have enough depth. We have enough skill. We got to figure it out.”

The perspective from Davis and Reaves in comparison with Ham’s highlight the discrepancy between how the locker room feels about the team’s current issues versus how Ham has cited injuries, schedule and lineup changes amid the team’s inconsistency, particularly since the IST.

Ham confirmed postgame that the team had a team meeting afterward, which is partly why the locker room took so long to open. By the time Davis spoke with the media, the rest of the players in the Lakers’ locker room had cleared out. Reaves said the vibe in the locker room is “sh—y.”

“We’re losing,” Reaves said. “Anytime you lose, the vibe should be off, you know? If I went in there and the vibe wasn’t off after the rough stretch that we’ve had, then I’d be concerned.”

He later clarified that the atmosphere is not a matter of the players disliking one another, which was a notable distinction considering where the locker room was at this time last season.

“When I say the vibe is off, it’s not like we don’t like each other,” Reaves said. “It’s we’re losing. We should be pissed off. We shouldn’t be happy after games with how we’re playing. But I don’t want to get that twisted on us not liking each other. Everybody in the locker room gets along.”

These Lakers have gone through their share of adversity through Ham’s nearly two years as head coach, including a 2-10 start a season ago that finished with a Western Conference finals berth. So Ham, in the second year of a four-year coaching contract, has shown an ability to get through to his players. But time is of the essence around the 39-year-old James and Davis, and as Ham has tinkered with lineups and adjustments across the past few weeks, patience is beginning to run thin.

that kind of happens when you make sure the most talentless and low iq player on this team gets playing time everyday as opposed to others who are fa

 

[SORIANOTRON]

I’m having fun just sitting back & watching y’all realize the team ain’t ****.

I’ll carry on.

smells like halal street meat in here

 

[noblekane]

I’m having fun just sitting back & watching y’all realize the team ain’t ****.

I’ll carry on.

 

[had pants]

 

[noblekane]

there will be no crank vogel **** riding on my watch. no sir!

this was the same ****ing *** hole who said 100 year old trevor ariza was the key to unlocking this teams success.

yall can dog walk that **** right up on out of here

 

[pmatic]

 

[smedroc]

Bron gonna start posting his live, love, laugh **** any day now

 

[grittyman]

Quick question

Forget the obvious w/ AD and Bron but how many current Lakers would crack this Heat rotation over the guys that they played last night?

 

[essential1]

DLo. AR. Rui.

 

[grittyman]

DLo. AR. Rui.

DLo over Lowry?
Austin over Herro?
Rui over JJJ?

Just trying to see if I’m on the same page here

 

[essential1]

DLo over Lowry?
Austin over Herro?
Rui over JJJ?

Just trying to see if I’m on the same page here

You said crack the rotation.

 

[noblekane]

we always getting the wrong heat shooters

 

[grittyman]

You said crack the rotation.

Meant that like a follow up question… 11 man roster is too many. So if those 3 would play where would they fit in?

 

[pmatic]

 

[essential1]

DLo over Lowry?
Austin over Herro?
Rui over JJJ?

Just trying to see if I’m on the same page here

I’ll make the argument of DLo / AR at the 1/2 with JJJ/Jimmy/Bam is a better starting 5.

But worst case. The 6th, 7th and 8th man. And by a significant margin versus their 6th, 7th and 8th man.

 

[Lizakers]

Throwing more talent at the problem isn’t the solution

We have enough talent to win these games we’re losing

Just look at that Heat line up that beat us

Lavine won’t fix this

 

[essential1]

Throwing more talent at the problem isn’t the solution

We have enough talent to win these games we’re losing

Just look at that Heat line up that beat us

Lavine won’t fix this

I agree.

There’s enough time to say **** it. Fire Ham.
Bring in Doc because we all know that’s who it will be.

Revert back to the playoff lineup. Give it a few weeks. And then make a move if needed.

(Although, they should have sorted out if the playoff lineup works in December).

 

[tupac003]

Firing Ham is crazy to me...

Firing Vogel was stupid but I could see it (even though the Russ move wasn't his fault)

If we Fire Ham it's not really going to change the fact that this roster is just plain not performing besides AD (yeah Bron plays well at times but makes a lot of stupid mistakes and never take accountability for any of them)

 

[grittyman]

Firing Ham is crazy to me...

Firing Vogel was stupid but I could see it (ven though the Russ move wasn't his fault)

If we Fire Ham it's not really going to change the fact that this roster is just plain not performing besides AD (yeah Bron plays well at times but makes a lot of stupid mistakes and never take accountability for any of them)

Every season man people need to find a scapegoat to make the focal point of their frustrations… From Jim, Jeanie, Mike Brown, Luke, Pringles, Vogel, Ham etc

 

[MVP]

Throwing more talent at the problem isn’t the solution

We have enough talent to win these games we’re losing

Just look at that Heat line up that beat us

Lavine won’t fix this

Nah we don't. That's been more so the issue from jump. Team definitely overachieved and some stuff broke right last season with the injuries to Memphis and playing and older GS team in round 2.

Team brought back the majority of the squad but it's all still largely composed of the same type of of one way only dudes. And those dudes have regressed in Vando, D-Lo so we're noticably worse.

The talent especially from an offensive perspective isn't here at all. And had been the case with the ancillary pieces for a while hence all the roster turnover after pretty much every season.

 

[Lizakers]

We had enough talent to beat the no kyrie Mavs and no Jimmy heat. We have enough talent to not be 3-9 in our last 12.

 

[pmatic]

Pls guide us through these turbulent times. BIG LEEMELONE

 

[dontsteponmyshoes]

Doc Rivers and Zach Lavine? Please don't do this to me.