Serious: Is Darvin Ham the worst coach in the NBA?

[JayMKE]

Id take Ham over Griffin

[Godymas]

why do ppl just assume players are good because they are on the Lakers

first of all, the Lakers overhauled their roster at the deadline, entered as the 7th seed and basically lucked out to make the WCF. They faced two incredibly flawed teams that were nowhere near contention. Memphis suffered a ton of crucial injuries and Golden State (as we know now) was a broken roster with internal conflict and was a one man show with Curry backpacking his guys.

AD and LeBron backpacked those series with AD putting on an all time defensive performance to get them to get swept by Denver.

So congrats, the Lakers turned around and became a highly successful 7th seed after winning two playoff series. In the off-season they pick up guys that OTHER TEAMS DIDN'T WANT. Jaxson Hayes, Cam Reddish, all the teams that drafted these young guys didn't want them. Overpaid Gabe Vincent who's injured, and resigned DLo while losing their actual good starting PG in Schroder. Roster is HIGHLY dysfunctional in it's design and implementation, I have no clue what Vando and AD are supposed to do together on offense (and Vando is extended)

[TimeisIllmatic]

The Lakers are in a tough spot. Still catering to a 39-year-old player is not really the wave. That's just too old, I don't care if Lebron is arguably the best player of all-time. They were blessed with a nice run last year in the playoffs due to matchups, but it was a fluke. This is more in-line with what the roster is as it currently stands. Maybe some poverty franchise will gift them more players again to help them turn their season around, but I am not seeing it.

Who exactly were the gifts?

Getting Vanderbilt, Beasley and D-Lo for Russell Westbrook, who was clearly not fitting in with Lebron and AD. And then playing a Grizzly team that was injured in the frontcourt (no Adams/Clarke). Those two things don't happen, it's possible the Lakers season would have ended in the play-in.

They deserve credit for getting to the WCF though.

They had to give up a top 4 protected pick for those role players so they weren't just handed those players. I can see that pick being really valuable down the line for Utah.

But yes, I agree; last year they got extremely lucky matching up with a Minnesota team without McDaniels, Gobert and Naz Reid; and then Memphis injuries for sure.

[zimpy27]

Ham is gone

[NyKnicks1714]

It's not Ham's fault. The Lakers are just built to contend in another era, not this one.

[Tracymcgoaty]

Even a meme has the correct lineup lol.

[tamaraw08]

This team is going downhill so fast with 2 of their aging and brittle Superstars tired and overworked.
Ham is saying
1.team didn’t execute=translation. I had good strategies but players failed to follow them.
2. Team got outworked/out hustled = translation-it’s not my fault players didn’t put enough effort.
It seems like he has given up on D’Lo even before he got injured, preferring to play defenders like Cam and Vando whom he has FAILED to hide on offense. All they do is camp in open corners and miss 80% if the time.
Team is ranked 23rd in 3 pt shooting even with 5 players hitting above 37% .

[infinite11285]

This team is going downhill so fast with 2 of their aging and brittle Superstars tired and overworked.
Ham is saying
1.team didn’t execute=translation. I had good strategies but players failed to follow them.
2. Team got outworked/out hustled = translation-it’s not my fault players didn’t put enough effort.
It seems like he has given up on D’Lo even before he got injured, preferring to play defenders like Cam and Vando whom he has FAILED to hide on offense. All they do is camp in open corners and miss 80% if the time.
Team is ranked 23rd in 3 pt shooting even with 5 players hitting above 37% .

The old and brittle narrative is misleading considering those two guys account for over 70% of the team's total production. It's the younger guys that are failing the roster.

[GopherIt!]

Ham is gone

Ham is cooked. getting roasted by the media/players.

[dWadeOwnzYou]

Are people not going to overlook at the fact that just maybe Lebron James is finally catching up to father time? He had just turn 39 recently. He can't be superman forever...

[tamaraw08]

This team is going downhill so fast with 2 of their aging and brittle Superstars tired and overworked.
Ham is saying
1.team didn’t execute=translation. I had good strategies but players failed to follow them.
2. Team got outworked/out hustled = translation-it’s not my fault players didn’t put enough effort.
It seems like he has given up on D’Lo even before he got injured, preferring to play defenders like Cam and Vando whom he has FAILED to hide on offense. All they do is camp in open corners and miss 80% if the time.
Team is ranked 23rd in 3 pt shooting even with 5 players hitting above 37% .

The old and brittle narrative is misleading considering those two guys account for over 70% of the team's total production. It's the younger guys that are failing the roster.

What narrative did I paint?
Never said they are underperforming, I said they are both tired and overworked?
Isn’t Lebron old?

[JB2]

Are people not going to overlook at the fact that just maybe Lebron James is finally catching up to father time? He had just turn 39 recently. He can't be superman forever...

Or is starting AD/Vando/Prince/Reddish/LeBron the problem?

[infinite11285]

This team is going downhill so fast with 2 of their aging and brittle Superstars tired and overworked.
Ham is saying
1.team didn’t execute=translation. I had good strategies but players failed to follow them.
2. Team got outworked/out hustled = translation-it’s not my fault players didn’t put enough effort.
It seems like he has given up on D’Lo even before he got injured, preferring to play defenders like Cam and Vando whom he has FAILED to hide on offense. All they do is camp in open corners and miss 80% if the time.
Team is ranked 23rd in 3 pt shooting even with 5 players hitting above 37% .

The old and brittle narrative is misleading considering those two guys account for over 70% of the team's total production. It's the younger guys that are failing the roster.

What narrative did I paint?
Never said they are underperforming, I said they are both tired and overworked?
Isn’t Lebron old?

By calling them brittle, you're furthering a false narrative that AD and James are incapable of performing despite them being healthier and outperforming a vast majority of their younger counterparts. James, specifically, is old in the traditional NBA sense, but the younger guys should be embarrassed that he's flagrantly more prepared to do his job at a high level than they are.

[SK21209]

I thought Ham was fine last season, but this season the lineup and rotation decisions have been downright bizarre. I know fans of probably 26/30 teams think their coach is using the wrong lineups/rotations, but you can't even discern the theory behind some of the lineups we've gotten over the last month.

Ham initially wanted to separate DLo and Reaves because Reaves struggled to start the year and Vanderbilt wasn't around to cover for that backcourt, so he brought Reaves off the bench. Makes some sense. But when DLo started to struggle and Reaves started playing well, rather than just swapping DLo out for Reaves in the starting group he decided to bring both off the bench (so now they're together again?) and start Reddish and Prince in the backcourt. We've gotten designed Reddish P&Rs as the ballhandler because there's no one else besides LeBron who can dribble out there. Prince is playing the third most minutes on the team at 30.8 per game. Prince is a fine player and has been shooting well after being cold to start the year, but he's a 20 minute per game guy max. We re-signed Rui to a significant deal after he played really well in the playoffs (beyond just being hot from three), but he's only at 23.5 per game and its been significantly lower than that when everyone has been healthy.

[The Laker Kid]

Ham is gone

Ham is cooked.

Ham gets eaten every game

[tamaraw08]

The old and brittle narrative is misleading considering those two guys account for over 70% of the team's total production. It's the younger guys that are failing the roster.

What narrative did I paint?
Never said they are underperforming, I said they are both tired and overworked?
Isn’t Lebron old?

By calling them brittle, you're furthering a false narrative that AD and James are incapable of performing despite them being healthier and outperforming a vast majority of their younger counterparts. James, specifically, is old in the traditional NBA sense, but the younger guys should be embarrassed that he's flagrantly more prepared to do his job at a high level than they are.

The last time he played more than 63 games was 6 years ago, when he was 24 years young.
He’s barely missing games lately but is grabbing a body part and winces in pain almost every game.
I would be shocked and will be extremely grateful if he only miss less than 10 games the rest of the season. The narrative I painted was it’s not looking good because both AD and Lebron are tired and overworked with more than 45 games left.

[scrabbarista]

He’s in the position that every coach has been who has to work with Lebron. You can replace Ham’s name with ANY OTHER coach Lebron has played for and I’m sure there’s a previous thread about it.

The reality is that you have a powerful figure who plays one side of the ball. Lol. Ham, and any other coach, needs to figure out how to hide him on defense, allow him to rest, and stay competitive (hence the zone defense).

ANY OTHER coach?

Even Mike Brown, two-time Coach of the Year who ended Sacramento's sixteen-year playoff drought and coached that team to becoming the greatest offense of all time?

Even Erik Spoelstra, consensus best coach in the league over the past fifteen years, NBA at 75 Top 15 coach in history, two-time champion (as a HC), who took an eighth seed from the play-in to the Finals?

Even Ty Lue, consensus top-three coach in the league who is regurlarly cited as a master of quick adjustments, with LAC's post-Harden turnaround from 0-5 to 18-5 as just the most recent example?

Even David Blatt, Princeton graduate and

FIBA EuroBasket champion (2007)
EuroLeague champion (2014)
EuroCup champion (2018)
FIBA EuroChallenge champion (2005)
5× Israeli Super League champion (2002, 2003, 2011, 2012, 2014)
LBA champion (2006)
ABA League champion (2012)
Italian Cup winner (2007)
6× Israeli Cup winner (2002, 2003, 2011–2014)
All-Europe Coach of the Year (2014)
EuroLeague Coach of the Year (2014)
Russian League Coach of the Year (2005)
4× Israeli Super League Coach of the Year (1996, 2002, 2011, 2014)
Russian Federation Order of Friendship award recipient (2014)?

Even those guys?

[Goomba3666]

He’s in the position that every coach has been who has to work with Lebron. You can replace Ham’s name with ANY OTHER coach Lebron has played for and I’m sure there’s a previous thread about it.

The reality is that you have a powerful figure who plays one side of the ball. Lol. Ham, and any other coach, needs to figure out how to hide him on defense, allow him to rest, and stay competitive (hence the zone defense).

ANY OTHER coach?

Even Mike Brown, two-time Coach of the Year who ended Sacramento's sixteen-year playoff drought and coached that team to becoming the greatest offense of all time?

Even Erik Spoelstra, consensus best coach in the league over the past fifteen years, NBA at 75 Top 15 coach in history, two-time champion (as a HC), who took an eighth seed from the play-in to the Finals?

Even Ty Lue, consensus top-three coach in the league who is regurlarly cited as a master of quick adjustments, with LAC's post-Harden turnaround from 0-5 to 18-5 as just the most recent example?

Even David Blatt, Princeton graduate and

FIBA EuroBasket champion (2007)
EuroLeague champion (2014)
EuroCup champion (2018)
FIBA EuroChallenge champion (2005)
5× Israeli Super League champion (2002, 2003, 2011, 2012, 2014)
LBA champion (2006)
ABA League champion (2012)
Italian Cup winner (2007)
6× Israeli Cup winner (2002, 2003, 2011–2014)
All-Europe Coach of the Year (2014)
EuroLeague Coach of the Year (2014)
Russian League Coach of the Year (2005)
4× Israeli Super League Coach of the Year (1996, 2002, 2011, 2014)
Russian Federation Order of Friendship award recipient (2014)?

Even those guys?

Yes. There are threads from Lebron faithful fans discussing how they all suck. Can't tell if you're joking or not.

[scrabbarista]

He’s in the position that every coach has been who has to work with Lebron. You can replace Ham’s name with ANY OTHER coach Lebron has played for and I’m sure there’s a previous thread about it.

The reality is that you have a powerful figure who plays one side of the ball. Lol. Ham, and any other coach, needs to figure out how to hide him on defense, allow him to rest, and stay competitive (hence the zone defense).

ANY OTHER coach?

Even Mike Brown, two-time Coach of the Year who ended Sacramento's sixteen-year playoff drought and coached that team to becoming the greatest offense of all time?

Even Erik Spoelstra, consensus best coach in the league over the past fifteen years, NBA at 75 Top 15 coach in history, two-time champion (as a HC), who took an eighth seed from the play-in to the Finals?

Even Ty Lue, consensus top-three coach in the league who is regurlarly cited as a master of quick adjustments, with LAC's post-Harden turnaround from 0-5 to 18-5 as just the most recent example?

Even David Blatt, Princeton graduate and

FIBA EuroBasket champion (2007)
EuroLeague champion (2014)
EuroCup champion (2018)
FIBA EuroChallenge champion (2005)
5× Israeli Super League champion (2002, 2003, 2011, 2012, 2014)
LBA champion (2006)
ABA League champion (2012)
Italian Cup winner (2007)
6× Israeli Cup winner (2002, 2003, 2011–2014)
All-Europe Coach of the Year (2014)
EuroLeague Coach of the Year (2014)
Russian League Coach of the Year (2005)
4× Israeli Super League Coach of the Year (1996, 2002, 2011, 2014)
Russian Federation Order of Friendship award recipient (2014)?

Even those guys?

Yes. There are threads from Lebron faithful fans discussing how they all suck. Can't tell if you're joking or not.

I was throwing you an alley. Your "yes" was the oop.

It's funny to me when people opine about LeBron's not having had a great coach, when everything about his choices should assure us he either would've left a Phil Jackson/Greg Popovich or gotten them fired.

[DusterBuster]

Id take Ham over Griffin

Yeah, Griffin by farrrrr is the worst.