Darvin Ham could be scapegoat for Lakers' woes

The Los Angeles Lakers are in the midst of a slump and it looks like the team’s woes will be pinned on Darvin Ham.

The Athletic detailed a “deepening disconnect” between the head coach and the players. The issue, according to six anonymous sources, is due to Ham’s extreme lineup rotation, and tweaking of the starting lineups, which is creating a lack of chemistry and rhythm for several different players.

Despite winning the inaugural In-Season Tournament, the Lakers are 2-8 over their last 10 games, and 3-9 since a Dec. 9 win over Indiana.

After L.A.’s 110-96 loss to Miami — things were so bad that LeBron James left before the media could even speak to him — Austin Reaves called the vibes around the team “sh*tty.”

“We’re losing,” he said after the game. “Anytime you lose, the vibe should be off.”

Reaves blamed the Lakers’ poor three-point shooting against the Heat.

“Shooting 13 percent tonight, you not going to win those games when you do that,” he told the.

“If we play how we played tonight, then it’s going to go south for us really bad,” added Anthony Davis, who recorded 29 points and 17 rebounds.

Ham cited injuries as the cause of L.A.’s woes. 

“We’ve got to get healthy,” he said. “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.”

If Los Angeles decides to part ways with Ham, it wouldn’t come as a total shock.

The Lakers – and LeBron-led teams, for that matter – are no strangers to rotating head coaches. Ham is the franchise’s seventh head coach since 2011, when Phil Jackson retired. According to Basketball Reference, only two coaches – Frank Vogel and Luke Walton – lasted more than two seasons. Both were fired after three.

The same can be said for teams that James has been part of over his career. The four-time MVP has played with 11 different head coaches in his 21-year career. Beyond his tenure with the Lakers, James has only played with two head coaches for more than two seasons. Erik Spoelstra coached the Heatles in all four years James was there, and he still remains the head coach of the Miami Heat. Mike Brown bookended James’ Cleveland stints, coaching him for four years before his Miami departure as well as the first year of his Cavaliers return.