Lakers News: With Future Murky, Darvin Ham Mercilessly Shreds Los Angeles Starter

LA's second-year head coach held little back.

Apr 29, 2024; Denver, Colorado, USA; Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham in the third quarter of an eventual loss to the Denver Nuggets. / Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Second-year Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham offered up a surprisingly brutal appraisal of an unnamed starter after his Purple and Gold squad had been officially eliminated from the 2024 postseason.

But you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to pinpoint the target of his ire.

"It's amazing how people just skip that core part of having a consistency with your lineup is all predicated on health and performance," Ham said, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN. "If you're coaching a team and one of your starters is like 10 games in a row, just s---ting the bed, what are you going to do?"

There's almost no question he was talking about point guard D'Angelo Russell, whose wildly inconsistent performance was far more buzzed-about than, say, the similarly-inconsistent play of another L.A. starter in the playoffs, starting power forward Rui Hachimura.

Hachimura had some deeply erratic output, and while his lows may never have reached D-Lo's brutal zero-point embarrassment in Game 3 of the club's first round series against the Denver Nuggets, Hachimura's highs also didn't reach Russell terrain. Twice in the series, the 6-foot-4 OSU product scored 20-plus points on 50% field goal shooting or better, while playing 39 or more minutes.

Russell's defensive issues and scoring inconsistency certainly didn't help set up the Lakers for success, but he's hardly the reason the team lost. Still, he seems likely to decline his $18.7 million player option and at least explore the open market for a longer-term deal.

All told, Russell averaged 14.2 points on .384/.318/.500 shooting splits, 4.2 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 0.8 steals in the five-game series, a far cry from his season averages of 18 points on .456/.415/.828 shooting splits, 6.3 assists, 3.1 rebounds, and 0.9 swipes.

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