There was a little bit of confusion when it got here to Darvin Ham’s beginning lineup on Monday. Throughout his pre-game press convention, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin requested the Los Angeles Lakers’ coach in the event that they have been going again to final season’s beginning lineup of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Jarred Vanderbilt, D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves. Ham confirmed that was the plan “for the foreseeable future,” however that group in the end did not even begin the sport. Ham would later clarify to McMenamin after the press convention that he had misheard the query and that Taurean Prince, not Vanderbilt, could be the crew’s fifth starter.
It was a considerably becoming sequence of occasions for a Lakers crew that has been outlined by its incapacity to choose a beginning lineup. The Lakers, who rank twenty ninth within the NBA with a minus-12.8 first-quarter web score, have now used 11 of them on the season, and on the night time through which they have been anticipated to return to the lineup that took them to the Western Convention Finals final spring, they as an alternative returned to the 5 they used on opening night time. It labored in a 112-105 Lakers win over the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, however the group as a complete has had blended outcomes this season.
That unit performed a serious function within the Lakers setting information for first-quarter futility early within the season, however do not count on it to go anyplace any time quickly. Ham once more confirmed that he plans to stay with this group transferring ahead, and he is already shared his beliefs on the topic this season. “You’ll be able to’t simply hold, on a whim, altering,” Ham said after a Dec. 20 loss to the Bulls. “That is a giant deal once you change your beginning lineup at this stage.”
After all, Ham wound up altering his lineup once more three days later, when the Lakers confronted the Thunder. As they did on Monday, the Lakers defeated Oklahoma Metropolis. However for a wide range of causes, they’ve to date been unable to take care of continuity of their beginning lineup.
Whereas Ham famous that the goal of Monday’s lineup was to place “as a lot ability and shot making round our two captains as doable,” it is price noting that the absence of former starter Cam Reddish, who’s coping with a knee damage, possible performed a component within the change. Reddish has began 24 of the final 25 video games he is performed in.
Reddish is not the one notable damage to deprive the Lakers of beginning lineup consistency. Final 12 months’s beginning group has performed solely 9 complete possessions collectively this season, and Vanderbilt’s absence when the season started is a part of what prompted the transfer to Prince within the first place. Vanderbilt is again now, and the choice to return to that group —which outscored opponents by 37 factors in 77 complete regular-season minutes a 12 months in the past— has been obtainable to Ham. He nonetheless hasn’t gone to it, and it is nearly the one lineup he hasn’t but used.
The Lakers initially moved off of this group for defensive functions. Reaves and Russell are each below-average defenders, and with out Vanderbilt to guard them defensively, Reddish was inserted in Reaves’ place to offer theoretical stability. The Lakers have spent the season attempting and largely failing to attain that stability, with the offense most frequently struggling consequently. Russell specifically has seen his minutes yanked round. He is performed 77 within the final two video games, however averaged simply 22.8 within the seven video games that preceded them.
After which there’s the matter of the commerce deadline, now lower than a month away. Russell has been concerned in nearly each Lakers rumor. His $17 million wage can be wanted for almost any commerce of be aware, significantly those who contain a guard. The Lakers have been closely linked to Zach LaVine and Dejounte Murray, each scoring guards in Russell’s mildew. Any vital deal would additional destabilize the Lakers’ starters, however as they realized final season, that may not be the worst factor.
The Lakers are 20-21. If there was an answer to their issues so simple as “revert to the opening night time lineup,” they possible would have landed on it earlier than the midway level of the season. They landed on an answer to the particular issues that the Thunder posed on Monday. Their very own current historical past means that the answer is nearer to non permanent than it’s to being everlasting.
