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Lakers' players at odds with Darvin Ham

The Los Angeles Lakers are always in the news, in part, because of the size of the Los Angeles media market. At times, that has its perks.

It’s why Austin Reaves could be on the verge of becoming an All-Star. More often than not, it’s a bit of a distraction, as the circus atmosphere isn’t quite what you’d want looming around the franchise, as it leads to unwanted dissension.

The latest buzz regarding Darvin Ham is proof of the latter, as Lakers players have grow weary and unhappy with the Lakers coach and his rotations, according to Jovan Buha and Shams Charania of The Athletic.

“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. These sources have described that the disjointedness between the coach and team has stemmed from extreme rotation and starting lineup adjustments recently from Ham, leading to a fluctuating rhythm for several players on the roster.”

Lakers rookie Maxwell Lewis was even liking social media posts regarding the disconnect between Ham and the players, which always adds fuel to the fire.

Let's remember that Ham just guided the Lakers to the Western Conference Finals not even eight months ago as a rookie head coach, despite having essentially an entirely different roster after the trade deadline.

How often does that happen?

Sure, the Lakers’ 17-19 start through 36 games has been unimpressive, but they, of all teams, should know that doesn’t mean that the season is over. They were 15-21 through the first 36 games in 2022-23 and still reached the Western Conference Finals.

Why panic now?

And even if you are mulling whether to pull the plug and make a change at the helm, it’s probably not good to leak it to the media.

But then again, this is a franchise that fired Frank Vogel, who won a championship with the perfect roster to surround LeBron James with, only to see the franchise break up the roster and later trade for Russell Westbrook, who was clearly not a roster fit for the LeBron James/Anthony Davis duo,

What more should we expect?