Tbf to him Ham was absolutely idiotic for benching D'lo just cuz he was in a shooting slump. We were starting Cam freaking Reddish over him, and Cam might be one of the worst players I've ever seen for play for us.
Rui I understand, he was not hustling at all, just standing on the wing or corner and if he ever had the ball in his hands it was going to be a midrange
Rui's legs were cooked because Ham had him guarding Jokic. That explains his fatigue and his shot going away when it never had before.
It's clear that the F.O. sees it the same way as both Rob and JJ have come out for Rui.
Rui and Max will get a legitimate chance this year. The one they should have had last year.
That's some fucking insane revisionist history. Ant had no off-season and came in expected to lead a dogshit team.
Saunders was a bad coach and I also disagree with that guy but what the fuck lol
Expected to lead a dog shit team with KAT and DLo
The fuck he wasn’t expected to lead shit. He literally had one 20 point game before Finch. As soon as we hired finch, he had his 28 point game vs the lakers. 42 point game vs the suns. 34 against the blazers twice?
He was graded the worst defender in the league before finch, and had a TS% below 47*. That’s not just an off-season problem, that’s a coaching problem. He wasn’t even top 10 on the rookie ladder in early Feb. Don’t tell me that’s revisionist history saying dumb shit like he was expected to lead the team.
KAT got injured a month into the season and the offense was DLo and Ant who had authority to chuck and 0 culture around him. The team was young and full of heinously bad players who did nothing to alleviate pressure off of him.
Saying ant was coached into a good player in a week just doesn't make sense
Nah at the beginning of the season, Reaves wasn’t it and Rui had an injury.
Not trying anything else after the IST when we start losing was dumb and Prince playing way too minutes, smh
Reaves was coming off a WCF run in his second year that he followed with a Team USA FIBA run. A run where he arguably was a top 5 most impactful player on the roster, despite coming off the bench.
It was obvious his "wasn't it" was because he didn't have his legs under him while dealing with increased minutes and thats why he was struggling. It was also obvious that with Vando injured to start the season, they didn't have anyone else that was playing good enough to warrant benching him. Theres an argument that benching him allows to rest him up a bit but knowing that he's going to end up being the 3rd or 4th best player every night depending on DLO, but he's probably someone you give a longer leash and let them try to figure it out instead of benching.
Ham fucked up when his biggest changes were benching Austin and DLO and while giving a bigger run to Prince and Reddish for the first 50 games of the season.
Dude Ham really saw opposing teams target our weaknesses and add our offensive slump and injuries and decided that he needed to put his boys on the floor. That there was the real problem of nepotism.
Ham putting his boys on the floor so he could be happy fulfilling his reclamation projects was killing me.
I don’t hate Cam nor Prince but Ham make it sure, a big portion of our fanbase would hate them because he didn’t put them in the right position.
And when he was about that time to give Prince more minutes than Rui in the 1st round because Rui was garbage and Prince was outplayed him, he did the complete opposite.
As a general rule, defense is what keeps you on the court. If you're not bringing it defensively, especially under a coach who is a defensive specialist, you're bound to get benched. So, it's no surprise D'Lo, AR, or Rui would sit in favor of better defenders. And let's face it, this won't be the last time any of these guys get benched, especially D'Lo and Rui. AR might have a shot at redemption, though.
And yet, once those guys and D'lo were all starting together, the Lakers immediately began winning games. Before they were all starting together, the Lakers were 25-25. Once all three began starting, they went 23-10 the rest of the regular season.
It's fine if you didn't watch the Lakers this year as they're not your team. But trust me, we Laker fans who watched them all year could see the difference once the same starting 5 that was in the WCF the year before were starting together again. The frustrating part is that it took until February for Ham to figure out what was obvious to even casual fans.
For anyone who just watches our box scores and is like haha Lakers bad, last year Reaves (our 4th best player last season) got to start 8 games on a mild slump after playing nonstop from the season to the playoffs to Team USA before getting benched. Dlo, our 3rd best player last season, got to slump for 5 games before he was benched. Taurean Prince got to start for over 40 games. Cam Reddish got to start 33 games and was only taken out of the lineup when he got injured and not for his terrible play. He then was not good enough to bother dressing up for the playoffs.
Yeah Ham let Prince/Cam shoot like ass for 35 minutes a night for half a season, but nah Dlo is shooting bad for a couple weeks? Austin shooting bad for a couple weeks? Bench their asses
Make it make sense Ham man
The Lakers dropped four games straight with D'Lo shooting just 31% from the field and not stepping up on defense. Benchings happen in hoops all the time—plenty of coaches would've made that call. They bounced back with a win right after, so it was a needed shake-up. Plus, the playoffs kinda proved we were spinning our wheels with D'Lo anyway. Considering that, benching him was justified, and in hindsight, trading him would've been the wiser move.
He was so awful. His stupid lineups and rotations easily cost the Lakers 5-10 wins this season. I still don't understand why it took him most of the season to figure out that the starting lineup from the WCF team should have been starting this year.
He's not awful in the regular season and is still a semi-capable starter when there's no pressure so if a team has zero starting guards with offensive ability then why not sign him for like 20 a year
Second most blatant lie of the season, right after Pelinka saying Bron had nothing to do with the Lakers drafting Bronny lol.
I didn't think his market was *this* bad.
I don't get why everything he ever says is taken at the worst possible interpretation ffs lmao why can't he be happy to play here, he's been a vocal leader that everyone in the locker room likes since coming back
Because if he could get like 4 years at 70 million or whatever, which is what Evan Turner got 8 years ago, why would he stick around for one year at 18.
He obviously is not getting the financial interest, cuz this is one of his last chances that a big payday.
A.) If he wanted to stay with the Lakers, opting out and signing a longer deal would've made much more sense. It would have also meant he couldn't be traded this summer, which leads to...
B.) He has to know he's going to be dangled in trade deals til the deadline. He simply isn't good / consistent enough for a team that wants to contend, and he's the Lakers' biggest movable contract. As such, by choosing to opt in, he's basically lost control of where he gets to play next season.
His market was bad, it's really that simple.
he can guarantee the most money he can get this summer with us, on a team he loves playing for, and still play himself into an extension this year 🤷♀️ seems to be a win win
I mean... that might be it, but at the same time he *has* to know that the Lakers are absolutely going to start trying to package him in trades for upgrades to the team. If he'd wanted to stay in LA, I think he would've just opted out after agreeing another extension (like another 1+1 maybe, or more years if he wanted to be w/ them long term) with the Lakers. With this option, he's given up control on where he actually plays next season.
Maybe he has a handshake deal w/ the Lakers that they won't trade him, IDK. But to me this says the value for him wasn't there.
I’ll prove you wrong if you’re willing to listen
Dlo was literally just on the market 1 year ago. And his market at that time was a 1+1. This is all he’s worth now. He wouldn’t get 4/$80-100m on the open market. Teams just know what he is now
Also, he loves LA. But he knows opting in would basically guarantee his trade
He will be gone
They might have… but it would’ve been a huge gamble that depended on cap space teams striking out on their top 3-4 targets. He could have easily found himself in no man’s land begging for an MLE.
I would guess the Magic are looking to become a serious playoff team at this point after a pretty good season. Dlo, as much as I appreciate what he did for us during the regular season, is not known as a playoff performer, and that’s being generous.
That’s because of cap holds that they haven’t officially relinquished, like Fultz at 29m, Gary Harris at 20m, Okeke at 15m. Go look at projected cap (where Spotrac guess who they relinquish/option/guarantee) and maximum cap (where Margic relinquishes everyone and don’t pick up any team options / guarantees) for the real number.
This is great for the Lakers. He's the ultimate tank commander, so a month into the season when 8 teams realize theyre fucked, they can send whatever decent players they have to L.A. and just play DLo 38 minutes a night. 28/3/2 on 35 shots with 4.2 turnovers per game will def get you Colton Flagg and Dylan Cooper or whoever.
The whole 2nd apron thing is supposed to limit stacking stars but it’s also making teams go real cheap on middle class players
Seems like there are tons of these 40m a year deals but Lakers had two legitimate at worst 6th men in Dlo and Schroeder that can’t even get 20m a year deals. I don’t get it. Isn’t it pretty hard to score sub 20 points per game in the NBA?
It still pains me that someone like Becky Hammon who put in YEARS of work under arguably the most respected NBA coaching system in the last 25 years couldn't get a fair shot at an NBA head coach just. While this guy started a podcast and coached his son's 4th grade team over the summer last year and got handed a high profile head coaching job.
you really think a WNBA player will command enough respect in today's NBA to get the whole team to buy in as a head coach? Even Steve Nash couldn't get his players to buy in
Yeah when is Becky Hammond getting her shot to coach the Celtics? Im sure they could have hired her in between their 3 coaches in the last 5 yrs? She wasn't even considered. Smh celts are an unserious franchise.
Bro hated Ham lol
Tbf to him Ham was absolutely idiotic for benching D'lo just cuz he was in a shooting slump. We were starting Cam freaking Reddish over him, and Cam might be one of the worst players I've ever seen for play for us.
Same with benching Reaves and Rui.
Rui I understand, he was not hustling at all, just standing on the wing or corner and if he ever had the ball in his hands it was going to be a midrange
Rui's legs were cooked because Ham had him guarding Jokic. That explains his fatigue and his shot going away when it never had before. It's clear that the F.O. sees it the same way as both Rob and JJ have come out for Rui. Rui and Max will get a legitimate chance this year. The one they should have had last year.
gunna be a rude awakening for nba coach believers (they dont matter, thats why no one cares jj is their coach)
Lmao! That’s a take…
Ant went from the worst rookie of all time to a good nba player in 1 week after we fired Ryan Saunders and hired finch
That's some fucking insane revisionist history. Ant had no off-season and came in expected to lead a dogshit team. Saunders was a bad coach and I also disagree with that guy but what the fuck lol
Expected to lead a dog shit team with KAT and DLo The fuck he wasn’t expected to lead shit. He literally had one 20 point game before Finch. As soon as we hired finch, he had his 28 point game vs the lakers. 42 point game vs the suns. 34 against the blazers twice? He was graded the worst defender in the league before finch, and had a TS% below 47*. That’s not just an off-season problem, that’s a coaching problem. He wasn’t even top 10 on the rookie ladder in early Feb. Don’t tell me that’s revisionist history saying dumb shit like he was expected to lead the team.
KAT got injured a month into the season and the offense was DLo and Ant who had authority to chuck and 0 culture around him. The team was young and full of heinously bad players who did nothing to alleviate pressure off of him. Saying ant was coached into a good player in a week just doesn't make sense
Nah at the beginning of the season, Reaves wasn’t it and Rui had an injury. Not trying anything else after the IST when we start losing was dumb and Prince playing way too minutes, smh
Reaves was coming off a WCF run in his second year that he followed with a Team USA FIBA run. A run where he arguably was a top 5 most impactful player on the roster, despite coming off the bench. It was obvious his "wasn't it" was because he didn't have his legs under him while dealing with increased minutes and thats why he was struggling. It was also obvious that with Vando injured to start the season, they didn't have anyone else that was playing good enough to warrant benching him. Theres an argument that benching him allows to rest him up a bit but knowing that he's going to end up being the 3rd or 4th best player every night depending on DLO, but he's probably someone you give a longer leash and let them try to figure it out instead of benching. Ham fucked up when his biggest changes were benching Austin and DLO and while giving a bigger run to Prince and Reddish for the first 50 games of the season.
Dude Ham really saw opposing teams target our weaknesses and add our offensive slump and injuries and decided that he needed to put his boys on the floor. That there was the real problem of nepotism.
Ham putting his boys on the floor so he could be happy fulfilling his reclamation projects was killing me. I don’t hate Cam nor Prince but Ham make it sure, a big portion of our fanbase would hate them because he didn’t put them in the right position. And when he was about that time to give Prince more minutes than Rui in the 1st round because Rui was garbage and Prince was outplayed him, he did the complete opposite.
As a general rule, defense is what keeps you on the court. If you're not bringing it defensively, especially under a coach who is a defensive specialist, you're bound to get benched. So, it's no surprise D'Lo, AR, or Rui would sit in favor of better defenders. And let's face it, this won't be the last time any of these guys get benched, especially D'Lo and Rui. AR might have a shot at redemption, though.
And yet, once those guys and D'lo were all starting together, the Lakers immediately began winning games. Before they were all starting together, the Lakers were 25-25. Once all three began starting, they went 23-10 the rest of the regular season. It's fine if you didn't watch the Lakers this year as they're not your team. But trust me, we Laker fans who watched them all year could see the difference once the same starting 5 that was in the WCF the year before were starting together again. The frustrating part is that it took until February for Ham to figure out what was obvious to even casual fans.
For anyone who just watches our box scores and is like haha Lakers bad, last year Reaves (our 4th best player last season) got to start 8 games on a mild slump after playing nonstop from the season to the playoffs to Team USA before getting benched. Dlo, our 3rd best player last season, got to slump for 5 games before he was benched. Taurean Prince got to start for over 40 games. Cam Reddish got to start 33 games and was only taken out of the lineup when he got injured and not for his terrible play. He then was not good enough to bother dressing up for the playoffs.
💯 Shouldn’t have even been in the playin if Ham didn’t fuck around.
LMAO ya, cam reddish was bad.
that Vando, Reddish and Taurean lineup against OKC was terrorism
Still can't believe he averaged <40% from 2 in college and still got taken in the lottery.
I remember the lolknicks comments when they let Reddish go. Anyway, gotta check on Brunson’s hand now.
Yeah Ham let Prince/Cam shoot like ass for 35 minutes a night for half a season, but nah Dlo is shooting bad for a couple weeks? Austin shooting bad for a couple weeks? Bench their asses Make it make sense Ham man
All the starters clearly hated ham but this sub will tell you he deserved to keep his job and the lakers scapegoated him
The Lakers dropped four games straight with D'Lo shooting just 31% from the field and not stepping up on defense. Benchings happen in hoops all the time—plenty of coaches would've made that call. They bounced back with a win right after, so it was a needed shake-up. Plus, the playoffs kinda proved we were spinning our wheels with D'Lo anyway. Considering that, benching him was justified, and in hindsight, trading him would've been the wiser move.
A Ham dick rider still out in the wild, crazy to see.
Most of us disliked Ham.
I still laugh at the first time I saw someone on here call him Darvin Hamas
Darvin Hamas and Taliban Lue were a historic coaching duo
Al-Klayda is still the GOAT terrorist nickname
Al-Kerrda was to complete the coaching trifecta
Not gonna lie I'm gonna miss Ham purely for the nicknames and memes. That shit was hilarious
I couldn't find it but nba twitter had a picture of the american airlines 9/11 terrorists and they replaced one of them with Ham
He was so awful. His stupid lineups and rotations easily cost the Lakers 5-10 wins this season. I still don't understand why it took him most of the season to figure out that the starting lineup from the WCF team should have been starting this year.
Ham being bad is the only thing the whole fanbase agrees on unanimously
Particularly when the Lakers made such a big deal about continuity with their roster decisions.
An understandable view on ham to say the least
Most of you dislike everyone after a year of hyping them up. It’s not exactly new.
D’Lo doesn’t like pork
I have no idea why any of you think this was anything more that dollars. If he can get more on the market he declines. It's not rocket surgery.
“No one wanted to give me more money”
And “Not taking my spot Bronny!!”
Oh ¥£ah, it'$ about JJ
Lmaoooo
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Would he?
Probably not. That's why he opt in. Because nobody is giving him higher than 18.7m a year. Not to mention, it's a one year contract.
No dude lol
For a team that has no playoff aspirations probably
Yeah sure the teams with crappy records and bad attendance want to give overvalued contracts. That's how businesses operate.
He's not awful in the regular season and is still a semi-capable starter when there's no pressure so if a team has zero starting guards with offensive ability then why not sign him for like 20 a year
Because why sign him for $20m a year? Why give him money and floor time?
For as awful as he is the playoffs, he is still starter-level in the regular season on offense
So you want a team that's planning on not making the playoffs, to willfully worsen their lottery odds?
Yeah I mean isn't that funnier
Oh ok this whole time I thought you were serious. My bad.
Salute, helluva player option
“I thought teams valued me but apparently they actually watched the playoffs”
AKA: "Would you turn down almost 19mill?"
Good to be rich and live in LA.
Yeah except living in LA part lmao.
Where do you live?
Nice try burgler
AKA: "Would get more if I could but 19mil will do."
Second most blatant lie of the season, right after Pelinka saying Bron had nothing to do with the Lakers drafting Bronny lol. I didn't think his market was *this* bad.
I don't get why everything he ever says is taken at the worst possible interpretation ffs lmao why can't he be happy to play here, he's been a vocal leader that everyone in the locker room likes since coming back
Welcome to player haters worldwide baby
Because if he could get like 4 years at 70 million or whatever, which is what Evan Turner got 8 years ago, why would he stick around for one year at 18. He obviously is not getting the financial interest, cuz this is one of his last chances that a big payday.
A.) If he wanted to stay with the Lakers, opting out and signing a longer deal would've made much more sense. It would have also meant he couldn't be traded this summer, which leads to... B.) He has to know he's going to be dangled in trade deals til the deadline. He simply isn't good / consistent enough for a team that wants to contend, and he's the Lakers' biggest movable contract. As such, by choosing to opt in, he's basically lost control of where he gets to play next season. His market was bad, it's really that simple.
He doesn't have to opt out to sign an extension
His opting out and signing a new extension would've meant he can't be traded this summer is the point.
he can guarantee the most money he can get this summer with us, on a team he loves playing for, and still play himself into an extension this year 🤷♀️ seems to be a win win
> on a team he loves playing for You ignored the entire point of my comment, but sure keep lying to yourself if you like.
you've ignored everything he's said since re-joining the team lmao
Not really. I'm well aware he wants to remain a Laker. That isn't really his choice anymore.
Hey 31 other teams don’t draft Bronny or he’s going to learn Australian buddy
There’s only 30 teams
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I mean... that might be it, but at the same time he *has* to know that the Lakers are absolutely going to start trying to package him in trades for upgrades to the team. If he'd wanted to stay in LA, I think he would've just opted out after agreeing another extension (like another 1+1 maybe, or more years if he wanted to be w/ them long term) with the Lakers. With this option, he's given up control on where he actually plays next season. Maybe he has a handshake deal w/ the Lakers that they won't trade him, IDK. But to me this says the value for him wasn't there.
I’ll prove you wrong if you’re willing to listen Dlo was literally just on the market 1 year ago. And his market at that time was a 1+1. This is all he’s worth now. He wouldn’t get 4/$80-100m on the open market. Teams just know what he is now Also, he loves LA. But he knows opting in would basically guarantee his trade He will be gone
Or maybe he really hated Ham like everyone else did
He just know that no team will get him at his asking price so he opt in
They might have… but it would’ve been a huge gamble that depended on cap space teams striking out on their top 3-4 targets. He could have easily found himself in no man’s land begging for an MLE.
He knows it was actually no market lol
Helluva coach we got now
Helluva ball club he’s cooking up
Sometimes you just gotta tip your cap
D-LOOOO
I thought he would at least get a 3-year $60m with teams like Magic.
I would guess the Magic are looking to become a serious playoff team at this point after a pretty good season. Dlo, as much as I appreciate what he did for us during the regular season, is not known as a playoff performer, and that’s being generous.
He might have, but I doubt he was even top 5 on Orlando’s wishlist…. He could have easily found himself with nowhere to go.
Because the magic are 40m over the cap
No they're not. They have nearly $50 million in space to use. LOL
Spotrac says -$39m 🤷♂️ https://www.spotrac.com/nba/orlando-magic/cap/_/year/2024
That’s because of cap holds that they haven’t officially relinquished, like Fultz at 29m, Gary Harris at 20m, Okeke at 15m. Go look at projected cap (where Spotrac guess who they relinquish/option/guarantee) and maximum cap (where Margic relinquishes everyone and don’t pick up any team options / guarantees) for the real number.
JJ already drawing up his ATO plays
His agent told him that this is the last double digit bag you're ever going to get.
This is great for the Lakers. He's the ultimate tank commander, so a month into the season when 8 teams realize theyre fucked, they can send whatever decent players they have to L.A. and just play DLo 38 minutes a night. 28/3/2 on 35 shots with 4.2 turnovers per game will def get you Colton Flagg and Dylan Cooper or whoever.
I like it !
Thought he might go back to Brooklyn to be their Tank Commander
Salute
Don’t worry these feelings g won’t last long once the losing starts lol
Lol
Is this the *3 months later* meme lol
Is there a way to block any post that says "Lakers" in it?
I remember when Dlo said he wanted to be a great defender like Derrick White. That lasted like 2 weeks and then he forgot about all that talk.
Allow me to translate, no one else is going to pay me that much money next season so I might as well take it
The whole 2nd apron thing is supposed to limit stacking stars but it’s also making teams go real cheap on middle class players Seems like there are tons of these 40m a year deals but Lakers had two legitimate at worst 6th men in Dlo and Schroeder that can’t even get 20m a year deals. I don’t get it. Isn’t it pretty hard to score sub 20 points per game in the NBA?
I find it hard to believe that the real answer is just that he couldn't find a good contract in free agency
JJ is going to put Reaves at point.
It still pains me that someone like Becky Hammon who put in YEARS of work under arguably the most respected NBA coaching system in the last 25 years couldn't get a fair shot at an NBA head coach just. While this guy started a podcast and coached his son's 4th grade team over the summer last year and got handed a high profile head coaching job.
you really think a WNBA player will command enough respect in today's NBA to get the whole team to buy in as a head coach? Even Steve Nash couldn't get his players to buy in
Yeah when is Becky Hammond getting her shot to coach the Celtics? Im sure they could have hired her in between their 3 coaches in the last 5 yrs? She wasn't even considered. Smh celts are an unserious franchise.
Should we tell him?
I bet he stayed not for JJ but for the 18 mill. Not like he will ever touch that again.
Yo ahh on the trade block foh
Keep that same energy when you are coming off the bench for Bronny