{"id":65806,"date":"2024-03-04T07:00:34","date_gmt":"2024-03-04T12:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=65806"},"modified":"2024-03-04T05:15:47","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T10:15:47","slug":"lakers-rumors-why-march-matters-for-darvin-hams-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/04\/lakers-rumors-why-march-matters-for-darvin-hams-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Rumors: Why March Matters for Darvin Ham&#8217;s Future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">40,000 is not only the number of points <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">LeBron James<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has eclipsed, but also the number of hurdles the Lakers have had to jump over this season\u2014or at least it feels like it. And with the team towing the line between 9th and 10th place in the West, March\u2019s slate of games isn\u2019t doing them any favors, either.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Lol, looking at the March schedule and the Lakers play at total of two (2) games against non-playoff\/play-in teams. 3\/27 at Memphis and 3\/31 at Brooklyn.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Anthony F. Irwin (@AnthonyIrwinLA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AnthonyIrwinLA\/status\/1763636072678834376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 1, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But aside from <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/02\/28\/lakers-playoff-chances-lebron-james-anthony-davis\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a 33-29 squad\u2019s season arguably hinging on this month<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, March matters for a different reason: its results could dictate the future of head coach Darvin Ham.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Lakers Rumors: Why March Matters for Darvin Ham&#8217;s Future<\/b><\/h2>\n<h3><b>Darvin Ham\u2019s Fluctuating Job Security<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Lakers brass may claim that Darvin Ham\u2019s job is safe as long as they want, but the results tell a different story. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lakersdaily.com\/report-darvin-hams-future-with-lakers-could-be-defined-by-march-results\/amp\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New reporting from Lakers insider Anthony Irwin<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> includes clarity on the team\u2019s plans with Ham, and what could happen if things fall short.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cPer sources speaking on the condition of anonymity, Ham\u2019s job is still very much safe this season, but if the Lakers don\u2019t make the playoffs (meaning, secure the sixth seed or win their way into an actual playoff series), that could change as soon as this summer.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Irwin also expanded on previous reports about players\u2019 frustrations growing with their second-year head coach, shedding new light on LeBron\u2019s feelings towards him:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c\u2018He sits in the huddle and gets his rest\/water, rolls his eyes as Ham speaks and waits for the huddle to break,\u201d one source close to the situation said. \u201cIf Ham ever does draw up a play, as soon as the huddle breaks, James will tell everyone else on the court with him \u2018f\u2014 all that\u2019 and calls a play of his own.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adding to the frustrations around schemes are Ham\u2019s inactions against the Heat and Nuggets:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c\u2018We couldn\u2019t do s\u2014 against Miami\u2019s zone and we have LeBron,\u2019 one source told me. \u2018After the game, it was all, \u2018We gotta do this, players gotta do that.\u2019 Not once did we hear about coaches not knowing what to do against a 2-3.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Darvin Ham on defending Nikola Jokic: &quot;You just have to fight as hard as you can for as long as you can and hope he misses. Hope he misses. &#8230; You just have to keep throwing stuff at him.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jovanbuha\/status\/1764145157388313021?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 3, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The mistakes are expected for a first-year head coach, but not for someone who\u2019s in his second year and coming off a Western Conference Finals appearance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of this intel only adds fuel to the fire, and it suggests that <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/01\/04\/lakers-rumors-darvin-hams-job-security-in-jeopardy\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ham may be closer to the hot seat<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> than many team executives want to believe.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>The Road Ahead<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Lakers have been one of the most polarizing teams all season. They have the talent to be a legitimate title contender but fail to show it when it matters the most. There are still 21 contests left for them to make another late-season turnaround, but, again, the odds are not in their favor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The majority of their schedule will be against teams who are in the playoffs or Play-in Tournament. Notably, they\u2019ll be fighting for their first wins of the season against the Bucks, Kings and 76ers\u2014the latter of whom delivered their largest loss of the season with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/lakers\/story\/2023-11-27\/los-angeles-lakers-philadelphia-76ers-nba-game-recap\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a 44-point blowout in November<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The Lakers will also be facing five Western Conference teams (Thunder, Timberwolves, Kings, Warriors and Grizzlies)\u2014four of whom have better records than LA right now. With several rotation players still making their way back from injuries\u2014and the current group continuing to struggle against contenders\u2014it really will be \u201cMarch Madness\u201d for the 2023-24 Lakers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amid all the doom and gloom, there are reasons to be optimistic about this group. They came off of a February that saw them go 9-3 with statement victories. LeBron and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisan02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anthony Davis<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> continue to perform at superstar levels. And <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/russeda01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">D\u2019Angelo Russell<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/reaveau01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Austin Reaves<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hachiru01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rui Hachimura<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are stuffing the stat sheet and helping the Lakers trudge through adversity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The players are putting in the effort to win despite their record. It\u2019s up to Ham to do the same. It makes sense why the Lakers don\u2019t want to fire their third coach in the LeBron era. If Ham is able to do his job and lead LA to a deep playoff run\u2014potentially culminating in glory\u2014there&#8217;s a good chance they won&#8217;t have to.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>40,000 is not only the number of points LeBron James has eclipsed, but also the number of hurdles the Lakers have had to jump over this season\u2014or at least it feels like it. And with the team towing the line between 9th and 10th place in the West, March\u2019s slate of games isn\u2019t doing them [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":65808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,26,62],"tags":[240,4556,307,3839,38,4774,1749],"class_list":["post-65806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-lakers","category-nba","tag-anthony-davis","tag-austin-reaves","tag-dangelo-russell","tag-darvin-ham","tag-lebron-james","tag-rumors","tag-rui-hachimura"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}