Report: Lakers Players Disgruntled, Team "Losing Patience" With Darvin Ham

Losers of eight of their last 10 games, the Los Angeles Lakers have been in a state of disarray of late. And after a series of puzzling lineup changes, it’s gotten to the point, according to several reports, that there’s a serious disconnect between the players and head coach Darvin Ham.

There's a "deepening disconnect" between Darvin Ham and Lakers locker room stemming from extreme rotation and starting lineup adjustments, per @ShamsCharania and @jovanbuha pic.twitter.com/xTySfQqVwE

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 4, 2024

As reported by Shams Charania in 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. Those sources have described that the disjointedness between the coach and team has stemmed from the extreme rotation and starting lineup adjustments recently from Ham, leading to a fluctuating rhythm for several players across the roster.

After 10 different starting lineups so far this season, Several players have vocalized their concerns about all the alterations. And while Ham has been blaming the changes as being necessitated by injuries, Anthony Davis and Austin Reaves blatantly disagreed with their coach, saying that injuries were not to blame. 

Ironically, the Lakers' last loss on Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena came against a Miami Heat team that was playing, and winning, without their best player, the injured Jimmy Butler.

All of this comes less than a month after Ham and the Lakers showed their potential by winning the first-ever In-Season Tournament. 

Safe to say at this point, with LeBron James now 39, and Anthony Davis having a beast of a season, Charania notes that “patience is running thin in LA.”

The Lakers are now 17-18, under .500 for the first time this season.

Photo: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports