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DLo saved us
**LA LAKERS THREAD** Sitting on 17! 2023-2024 offseason begins
- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by licensed to ball,
- Start date
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We did it
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Nipple head is crazy 
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AR
Max
Bron
Rui
AD
This should be the starters until further notice
Regular bench rotation should be DLo, Prince, and Wood with the majority of the bench minutes and about 12 min combined from Vando, Reddish, and Hayes.
Ham has to be consistent with his minutes distribution.
Max
Bron
Rui
AD
This should be the starters until further notice
Regular bench rotation should be DLo, Prince, and Wood with the majority of the bench minutes and about 12 min combined from Vando, Reddish, and Hayes.
Ham has to be consistent with his minutes distribution.
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Wood too.
darthska
Staff member
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IS TAUREAN PRINCE A JOKE TO YOU?!
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Ham survives
Gotta follow this up with more wins.
Gotta follow this up with more wins.
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I think if Ham were smart.
You start DLo / AR together. Even if for 5 minutes. Then you can sub out DLo and bring him back in at 3-4 minute mark just to avoid slow offensive starts.
It would look something like
DLo + AR 5 minutes
AR w/out DLO 3 minutes
DLo w / out AR 8 minutes
DLo + AR 2 minutes
AR w / out DLo 6 minutes
(Could reverse the last 2)
DLo + AR 7 minutes
DLo alone 8 minutes
AR alone 9 minutes
You start DLo / AR together. Even if for 5 minutes. Then you can sub out DLo and bring him back in at 3-4 minute mark just to avoid slow offensive starts.
It would look something like
DLo + AR 5 minutes
AR w/out DLO 3 minutes
DLo w / out AR 8 minutes
DLo + AR 2 minutes
AR w / out DLo 6 minutes
(Could reverse the last 2)
DLo + AR 7 minutes
DLo alone 8 minutes
AR alone 9 minutes
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I'd also trade Cam Reddish for Hassan Whiteside at this point.
Is Wayne Ellington still with us? I'll take him too
Is Wayne Ellington still with us? I'll take him too
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The starting lineup tonight was fine.
The rotations were generally fine.
Will worry about where Rui fits in when the time comes, but for tonight let’s just enjoy the win.
The rotations were generally fine.
Will worry about where Rui fits in when the time comes, but for tonight let’s just enjoy the win.
darthska
Staff member
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Fixed.
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This is the second time where I purposely haven't watched the game and we won.
Welp....I guess I'll be watching replays from here on out.
PG cost me 300 bucks though. 1 more 3 and I would have hit a 6 leg parley.
Picked Bron, AD, TP, Harden and D.lo right...missed on PG.
Welp....I guess I'll be watching replays from here on out.
PG cost me 300 bucks though. 1 more 3 and I would have hit a 6 leg parley.
Picked Bron, AD, TP, Harden and D.lo right...missed on PG.
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Last night’s game
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So more Wood and less Rui when he returns?
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Darvin Ham has the backing of the most important Laker: owner Jeanie Buss
Of all the ways a head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers can increase their internal approval rating, it doesn’t get much better than beating the intracity-rival Clippers.
One might think winning an NBA title would be the ultimate job security, but Darvin Ham’s predecessor, Frank Vogel, learned the hard way that even a Larry O’Brien trophy isn’t enough sometimes. But the Clippers, in recent years, have become such a persistent pain point for this Lakers organization that a rare win over them is the kind of thing that puts the widest of smiles on everyone’s faces. And that’s in normal times, which these are most certainly not for the under-siege Ham and his underwhelming Lakers.
So to see Steve Ballmer leave Crypto.com Arena in a dissatisfied state on Sunday night, after the Lakers broke their four-game losing streak with a 106-103 win and the Clippers owner headed for the exits like he was Chris Paul in that race-walking commercial, was to realize Ham had helped his own cause in the timeliest of fashions. Or so it might seem.
After an evening spent trying to read the proverbial Lakers room, speaking to anyone and everyone who might have substantive insight into the question of whether Ham is truly in trouble at the moment, it’s the informed opinion of this particular NBA scribe that he would not have been fired even if they had lost Sunday. And that was before discussing the situation with Ham long after the game was over.
But as he shared in a conversation with The Athletic, there’s a significant factor in play here that should not be forgotten: While Ham has issues to resolve both in his locker room and elsewhere within Laker Land, he has the continued support of owner Jeanie Buss.
“I told you, man, I’m just thankful that I’ve got that support from Jeanie, with her always encouraging me, asking me ‘What do I need? Is everything great?’” said Ham, whose Lakers entered play against the Clippers having lost 10 of 14 games since winning the inaugural In-Season Tournament on Dec. 9.
Unlike the Vogel situation, where Buss was known to believe the former coach was largely to blame for the failed integration of Russell Westbrook and ultimately greenlighted his April 2022 firing as a result, all signs point to the Lakers’ most important decision-maker standing by the coach who is in the second year of a four-year deal. There’s a mutual respect in that relationship, one that resulted in Buss sending a lengthy text message of support to Ham in the wake of Thursday’s report in The Athletic that chronicled the rising pressure that surrounds him. Buss could certainly change her stance, of course, but the current state of affairs suggests Ham still has time to turn this around.
Which brings us to LeBron James.
The incredible truth about the Lakers’ 39-year-old legend is that his middle finger to Father Time comes at a cost, with everyone around him still vulnerable to the same pressures that have been there since he entered the league as a phenom in 2003 because of his unprecedented level of play at this late stage. Just watch that clip of his dunk from early in the third quarter against the Clippers, when he surely triggered Paul George’s PTSD from their Pacers–Heat face-offs of yore by obliterating him with a soaring dunk.
So long as James is still finishing like that, or turning in a 25-point, eight-rebound, seven-assist outing like he did against a Clippers team that had won 14 of its previous 16 games, then the expectations for everyone around him will remain exceptionally high. Add in the fact that James chose to hype the other team’s coach on Sunday night, waxing poetic about how his longtime friend and former Cavs coach, the Clippers’ Tyronn Lue, has been able to “get s— right” after they landed James Harden, and you start to see why any coach in Ham’s position would be the subject of perpetual scrutiny from within. That being said, Ham made it clear he isn’t shaken by any of this.
“I know the situation,” said Ham, the former player whose first NBA coaching job came as an assistant with the Lakers from 2011 to 2013. “I’ve been here before. I started here. So I understand the gravity of being with Kobe (Bryant), with (Milwaukee’s) Giannis (Antetokounmpo, whom he coached as an assistant from 2018 to 2022) and now with (LeBron), of what you’re fighting for. And I’m the same (as them). I’ve won two championships (one as a player with the Pistons in 2004, and the other with the Bucks as an assistant in 2021). That’s the most addictive drug ever, you know what I’m saying? So you’ve got a situation where I want to get back to that. But we can’t skip steps, and there’s certain s— that we’re gonna have to go through.”
As the 50-year-old Ham discussed with reporters pregame, he has a well-chronicled life experience growing up in Saginaw, Mich., that helps him maintain a big-picture perspective throughout this latest round of NBA drama. The memories of being a 16-year-old pallbearer for a fallen friend of the same age, he explained, tend to remind you that these obstacles simply don’t compare to what he has already overcome on the journey that brought him here.
“My perspective helps me walk other people through the process of patience and knowing that it’s a marathon,” Ham explained. “Everybody’s going crazy. It’s noisy (around the Lakers). We lost four in a row. I know that we just need to tap into what we need to tap into from a simplistic way of — control what we can control. And we can control how hard we go. We can control doing our job — everybody, and I include us (on the coaching staff). Players, coaches, performance team, we just need to do our job. … But if my players see me in shambles, or all over the place emotionally and s—, that’s not good.”
It certainly wasn’t good on Thursday.
One day after another of James’ former coaches, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra, had shepherded a 110-96 Heat win in which the Lakers had 21 turnovers, Ham decided that an unfiltered film session with his team was in order. The whole basketball world had been told that there was a disconnect in their locker room, and so it was that he decided to open the floor to any and all players who wanted to share their frustrations. The result, he said, was the kind of communication that should help them going forward.
“Hell yeah I open the floor,” Ham said while explaining the session. “Give me some feedback. I don’t have pride. My pride is not crazy. My ego — all that. We had a couple (players) speak up. I’ll just leave it there, but we had a few guys speak up. And right or wrong, I love it. I agreed with most of it, and I disagreed with some.”
That wasn’t the point though, really. The meeting was about those lines being open, about a team that is clearly capable of beating the NBA’s best teams figuring out how to avoid looking like one of the league’s worst. And Ham — for now, anyways — is still the one at the Lakers’ helm.
Of all the ways a head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers can increase their internal approval rating, it doesn’t get much better than beating the intracity-rival Clippers.
One might think winning an NBA title would be the ultimate job security, but Darvin Ham’s predecessor, Frank Vogel, learned the hard way that even a Larry O’Brien trophy isn’t enough sometimes. But the Clippers, in recent years, have become such a persistent pain point for this Lakers organization that a rare win over them is the kind of thing that puts the widest of smiles on everyone’s faces. And that’s in normal times, which these are most certainly not for the under-siege Ham and his underwhelming Lakers.
So to see Steve Ballmer leave Crypto.com Arena in a dissatisfied state on Sunday night, after the Lakers broke their four-game losing streak with a 106-103 win and the Clippers owner headed for the exits like he was Chris Paul in that race-walking commercial, was to realize Ham had helped his own cause in the timeliest of fashions. Or so it might seem.
After an evening spent trying to read the proverbial Lakers room, speaking to anyone and everyone who might have substantive insight into the question of whether Ham is truly in trouble at the moment, it’s the informed opinion of this particular NBA scribe that he would not have been fired even if they had lost Sunday. And that was before discussing the situation with Ham long after the game was over.
But as he shared in a conversation with The Athletic, there’s a significant factor in play here that should not be forgotten: While Ham has issues to resolve both in his locker room and elsewhere within Laker Land, he has the continued support of owner Jeanie Buss.
“I told you, man, I’m just thankful that I’ve got that support from Jeanie, with her always encouraging me, asking me ‘What do I need? Is everything great?’” said Ham, whose Lakers entered play against the Clippers having lost 10 of 14 games since winning the inaugural In-Season Tournament on Dec. 9.
Unlike the Vogel situation, where Buss was known to believe the former coach was largely to blame for the failed integration of Russell Westbrook and ultimately greenlighted his April 2022 firing as a result, all signs point to the Lakers’ most important decision-maker standing by the coach who is in the second year of a four-year deal. There’s a mutual respect in that relationship, one that resulted in Buss sending a lengthy text message of support to Ham in the wake of Thursday’s report in The Athletic that chronicled the rising pressure that surrounds him. Buss could certainly change her stance, of course, but the current state of affairs suggests Ham still has time to turn this around.
Which brings us to LeBron James.
The incredible truth about the Lakers’ 39-year-old legend is that his middle finger to Father Time comes at a cost, with everyone around him still vulnerable to the same pressures that have been there since he entered the league as a phenom in 2003 because of his unprecedented level of play at this late stage. Just watch that clip of his dunk from early in the third quarter against the Clippers, when he surely triggered Paul George’s PTSD from their Pacers–Heat face-offs of yore by obliterating him with a soaring dunk.
So long as James is still finishing like that, or turning in a 25-point, eight-rebound, seven-assist outing like he did against a Clippers team that had won 14 of its previous 16 games, then the expectations for everyone around him will remain exceptionally high. Add in the fact that James chose to hype the other team’s coach on Sunday night, waxing poetic about how his longtime friend and former Cavs coach, the Clippers’ Tyronn Lue, has been able to “get s— right” after they landed James Harden, and you start to see why any coach in Ham’s position would be the subject of perpetual scrutiny from within. That being said, Ham made it clear he isn’t shaken by any of this.
“I know the situation,” said Ham, the former player whose first NBA coaching job came as an assistant with the Lakers from 2011 to 2013. “I’ve been here before. I started here. So I understand the gravity of being with Kobe (Bryant), with (Milwaukee’s) Giannis (Antetokounmpo, whom he coached as an assistant from 2018 to 2022) and now with (LeBron), of what you’re fighting for. And I’m the same (as them). I’ve won two championships (one as a player with the Pistons in 2004, and the other with the Bucks as an assistant in 2021). That’s the most addictive drug ever, you know what I’m saying? So you’ve got a situation where I want to get back to that. But we can’t skip steps, and there’s certain s— that we’re gonna have to go through.”
As the 50-year-old Ham discussed with reporters pregame, he has a well-chronicled life experience growing up in Saginaw, Mich., that helps him maintain a big-picture perspective throughout this latest round of NBA drama. The memories of being a 16-year-old pallbearer for a fallen friend of the same age, he explained, tend to remind you that these obstacles simply don’t compare to what he has already overcome on the journey that brought him here.
“My perspective helps me walk other people through the process of patience and knowing that it’s a marathon,” Ham explained. “Everybody’s going crazy. It’s noisy (around the Lakers). We lost four in a row. I know that we just need to tap into what we need to tap into from a simplistic way of — control what we can control. And we can control how hard we go. We can control doing our job — everybody, and I include us (on the coaching staff). Players, coaches, performance team, we just need to do our job. … But if my players see me in shambles, or all over the place emotionally and s—, that’s not good.”
It certainly wasn’t good on Thursday.
One day after another of James’ former coaches, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra, had shepherded a 110-96 Heat win in which the Lakers had 21 turnovers, Ham decided that an unfiltered film session with his team was in order. The whole basketball world had been told that there was a disconnect in their locker room, and so it was that he decided to open the floor to any and all players who wanted to share their frustrations. The result, he said, was the kind of communication that should help them going forward.
“Hell yeah I open the floor,” Ham said while explaining the session. “Give me some feedback. I don’t have pride. My pride is not crazy. My ego — all that. We had a couple (players) speak up. I’ll just leave it there, but we had a few guys speak up. And right or wrong, I love it. I agreed with most of it, and I disagreed with some.”
That wasn’t the point though, really. The meeting was about those lines being open, about a team that is clearly capable of beating the NBA’s best teams figuring out how to avoid looking like one of the league’s worst. And Ham — for now, anyways — is still the one at the Lakers’ helm.
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The amount of momentum Lakers lose and how quickly they lose it is impressive.
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Saw some stuff in the NBA thread about Bron's defense last night.
It's clear he locked Kawhi up and proves he plays defense when he wants.
It's frustrating to watch him miss assignments consistently vs lesser comp and then pull what he did last night.
I get he is 39 but damn just a little more effort in the games vs lesser teams and our record is much better.
Now the flip the switch narrative has some credibility to it....
It's clear he locked Kawhi up and proves he plays defense when he wants.
It's frustrating to watch him miss assignments consistently vs lesser comp and then pull what he did last night.
I get he is 39 but damn just a little more effort in the games vs lesser teams and our record is much better.
Now the flip the switch narrative has some credibility to it....
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Raptors game wont be easy. Need to pull a string of wins together this week
Denis
Barnes
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Quigley
Trent Jr
Boucher
Denis
Barnes
Siakam
Poeltl
Barrett
Quigley
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Boucher
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Clips are an iso heavy team, even if it ends up with a pick and roll if all Bron has to do is play on ball defense he’s cool… but he’s going to be lazy as hell anytime he’s doing something off ball. A lot of falling asleep or failing to rotate which comprises the entire defense.
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And then blaming the other guys who always look shocked when he blames them...
