Darvin Ham's Biggest Lakers Mistake Warms The Bench Ahead of Tonight's Grizzlies Game

The LA Lakers aren't having a good time this season, between different struggles as the group hasn't been healthy, have become one of the worst shooting teams in the campaign, especially in their last game on Wednesday night vs. the Miami Heat where only Austin Reaves and Max Christie scored from that distance for a total of four 3-pointers out of 30 attempts made by the rotation and now news has come out of a growing disconnect between the head coach and Lakers locker room.

Tonight there's a new opportunity for things to start changing, but the main problem in the last few weeks, ever since LA became the In-Season Tournament has been the lack of continuity and consistency, especially since Darvin Ham has gone with an extreme team rotation and different starting lineups during the campaign.

With information via The Athletic's Jovan Buha and Shams Charania: “Ham’s decision to bench D’Angelo Russell and start James, Prince, Reddish, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Davis in a lineup without a second guard ballhandler beginning Dec. 23 in Oklahoma City was considered a head-scratcher by multiple parties internally.”

The Lakers' best lineup from last season of D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, LeBron James, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Anthony Davis has only played together for 3 minutes this campaign, which is outrageous, even when Vando and D'Lo have been out for quite some time. Coach Darvin Ham's seat is now warm as another couple of losses can make him get closer to being fired due to his recent starting lineups.

What separates Ham from repeating last season's best lineup tonight vs. Grizzlies

Tonight D'Angelo Russell is doubtful, but in case he gets available, Ham should be starting to return to that lineup, at least to get closer to it, as Cam Reddish and Taurean Prince are good role players but shouldn't be starters as they showed in the loss to the Heat where neither of them scored a single point.