The Lakers Starting Lineup Darvin Refuses To Play, Was One of NBA's Best Last Year

The offseason promised a different kind of regular season for the Los Angeles Lakers as the front office put the work on the offseason by betting on continuity re-signing key players from last season like D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, and the extensions of Anthony Davis and Jarred Vanderbilt.

The team's core that made it to the Western Conference Finals in the 2023 playoffs was back plus some supposed upgrades in key positions with the signings of Taurean Prince, Gabe Vincent, Jaxson Hayes, Cam Reddish, and Christian Wood.

After a promising start of the season, despite the many struggles the team had, the group was able to win the In-Season Tournament, had an over .500, and were sitting on the 5th seed, but after that, things went south really quickly as coach Darvin Ham threw continuity out the window by not using his best-starting lineup from the last campaign.

Ham has used extreme team rotation and constantly changed his starting lineup between players being out because of injuries which has now the team on a losing streak. What has shocked the fans, NBA media and even the organizations is that the Russell, Reaves, Vanderbilt, James, and AD starting lineup was the 7th best-ranked lineup last year based on Net Rating. This season, that lineup played only three minutes together.

The Starting Lineup that has now Darvin Ham's seat to be warm

“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.” According to Shams Charania and Jovan Buha from The Athletic. Ham's job could be in danger if the team loses tonight and on Sunday night.