Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham sat on the bench inside Crypto.com Arena Tuesday night watching his team get blown out by the conference-rival Golden State Warriors.
With Anthony Davis sidelined, it was an ugly defensive effort from the Lakers as they dropped a second consecutive game. By all accounts, Golden State put up one of the best three-point shooting performances of all-time. It shot 26-of-41 from beyond the arc in what ended up being a 134-120 Lakers loss.
As all of this was playing out, Lakers star LeBron James could be seen pretty much tuning Ham out. Heck, this replay shows the entire team walking away as Ham was drawing up a play with the game out of hand late in the fourth quarter.
The loss dropped Los Angeles to 45-35 on the season. It is just a half game ahead of Golden State for the ninth seed in the Western Conference with two games remaining. It also lost the season series to the Warriors by a margin of 3-1.
Locked into a spot in the NBA Play-In Tournament, this is not necessarily how James and the Lakers expected the 2023-24 season to unfold. There is also a telling report as it relates to the situation in Southern California.
Related: Los Angeles Lakers expected to chase after 3rd star this summer
Los Angeles Lakers players wanted to replace Darvin Ham earlier in the season
Lakers insider Ashish Mathur of Hoops Wire provided some information as it relates to Ham’s relationship players. It’s not great.
“A source told Hoops Wire that Lakers players wanted assistant coach Phil Handy to replace Ham earlier in the season. However, Los Angeles owner Jeanie Buss is a fan of Ham and she has never thought about firing him as coach, the source said.”
Report on Darvin Ham and Los Angeles Lakers players
This is interesting for a number of reasons. First off, it seems as if Buss is continuing to push back against influence from James when it comes to coaching and player personnel. What we saw from the team ahead of February’s NBA trade deadline was the most-recent example of this. Typically, James has has a lot of say throughout his career.
Secondly, this also comes on the heels of another report indicating that King James will opt out of his contract and test NBA free agency during the summer. Could some drama be brewing behind the scenes in Los Angeles? If James’ body language at the end of the Lakers’ loss to Golden State Tuesday night is any indication, that’s a real possibility.
As for Phil Handy, he has obvious connections with James. The veteran was a Cleveland Cavaliers assistant when they won the NBA title over Golden State back in 2016.
Per the aforementioned report, Lakers players are expected to have a conversation with general manager Rob Pelinka after the season about Darvin Ham and his future. Whether that includes James remains to be seen.