The Lakers' disease is worse than taking cephalosporin any other medicine

Two weeks ago, the Lakers seemed to have hit rock bottom when they lost by 14 points to the Miami Heat without Jimmy Butler.

Nongmei scored 29 points, 17 rebounds and 5 blocks alone in the paint, but could only watch helplessly as his teammates from the outside shot 4 of 30 three-pointers. The Lakers committed 5 turnovers in the first 6 offenses of the first quarter and 21 turnovers in the game. James, who scored 12 points on 6-for-18 shooting, did not even accept an interview with reporters after the game. He went home directly. This seemed to send a signal. After the game, the media from different channels began to spread an atmosphere: Hamm’s coaching position is about to be lost.

Two days later, the Lakers lost to the Grizzlies at home due to three-pointers from Smart and Jaren Jackson Jr. Jbet888, suffering their 10th loss in 13 games after the mid-season game. After the game, Ha In an interview, Mu still said that his coaching position is stable and the team’s situation is optimistic: “I am tired of everyone treating every regular season game as our life and death battle. This is ridiculous, because in fact we are conducting a marathon. There’s so much noise around the Lakers. It’s disappointing to lose, and when we lose, everyone will find fault with me, the players, and the team. And what we have to do is block out all the noise and not pay attention to it, but Just do our job and focus on how we can do better.”

At the time, it seemed that few Lakers fans agreed with his statement. Lakers fans are well aware that they are looking at a “win or die” team, and that each season may be the last chance to succeed. And when such a team falls all the way from fourth place in the Western Conference to outside the play-off zone, it is difficult for everyone to remain rational and patient. Everyone expected the 39-year-old LeBron James to perform well, and when he met this expectation and still scored 25 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists against the Thunder, the pressure from the fans did not disappear, but all Pointed at Harm.

Hamm’s first NBA coaching job at the age of 38 was to coach Mike Brown with the Lakers in the 2011-12 season. He knows how much pressure it is to partner with a superstar: “I started my career here, so I Understand the specialness of being with Kobe, being with Giannis (who coached Antetokounmpo as an assistant from 2018 to 2022) and now being with LeBron. I’m the same as them, I won two Two championships (once in 2004 as a Pistons player and the other as a Bucks assistant in 2021). I know that championships are the most addictive thing for players. We want to return to the state of mid-season, but in this process There are things we have to go through.”

There are tons of Lakers fans who want to see the Lakers win. They want to see the Lakers win all the time. Under Ham’s coaching, everyone saw the vitality of the Lakers when the team was healthy, and also saw the huge dominance of superstar combinations like James and Big Eyebrow in a game that determines the outcome. James’ performance is good enough, and he has a huge number of fans. If you fail to win, no matter whether the team’s loss has anything to do with you or not, the fans will always direct their anger at the coach immediately.

Lakers fans’ accusations against Ham are nothing more than two points: the Lakers’ offense has always been bad under his command; he has adjusted the rotation during the recent losing streak, with little effect.

The Lakers’ offensive performance this season is indeed not very good. Their offensive efficiency only ranks 23rd in the league, scoring only 112.7 points per 100 possessions. But this really has little to do with Hamm’s tactics. The main reason is that the Lakers’ staffing determines their insufficient shooting level. Only the Detroit Pistons — yes, that 4-36 team — are averaging fewer three-pointers per game this season (10.6) than the Lakers (10.9). And you can’t say that the team’s space for shooters is not good enough. According to one data, the Lakers’ wide-open three-point shooting rate this season is only 27%, which is the worst open shot shooting rate in the NBA in the past ten years. team.

Is it the Lakers’ poor environment that makes the shooter tough? Of course not. The Lakers’ main three-point sources this season, Prince, Russell, James and Rui Hachimura, all have three-point shooting percentages significantly higher than their career averages. We can only say that this team was indeed built without considering adding enough shooters, or that Vincent’s long absence affected the team’s space. This is obviously not Hamm’s problem.

As for the accusations of adjusting the rotation, we can actually understand it as long as we think about it from their perspective. In the mid-season, they went all out to win the championship. After the Lakers opened the champagne at halftime of the season, it was clear that the entire team was out of shape. Young and energetic players such as the Pacers suffered a wave of 2 wins and 6 losses after the mid-season games (the winners were the Pistons and Hornets), cleopatra casino while old arms and legs such as the Lakers will naturally take longer to adjust. Among them, Russell, who performed poorly in the five regular season games after the mid-season game, averaged only 9.4 points and 6.2 assists, with a shooting percentage of only 35.1% and a three-point shooting percentage of only 25%. This dragged down the team’s defense. Didn’t contribute on the offensive end either. Hamm wants to take him out of the starting lineup. Is it Hamm’s problem? If you were the head coach and the team lost 5 of 6 games, and you wanted to make adjustments in the lineup, wouldn’t you make adjustments to him?

If you jump out of the process and only look at the conclusion, the starting lineup he has set up now with Russell, Rivers, Prince and James seems to have been a useless effort, returning to the configuration at the beginning of the season, but as long as he has gone through the process, his choice does have its limitations, but it is not incomprehensible.

As a team with little rookie bonus (only Christie in the rotation is on a rookie contract), the Lakers’ salary structure determines that their role players are more functional. Those who can attack cannot defend, and those who can defend cannot shoot. This also means that the Lakers do not have a lineup that is both offensive and defensive. During the Lakers’ journey to win the mid-season championship, Reddish and Vanderbilt performed well, showing their power when defending stars such as Booker, Ingram, and Haliburton. The Lakers defeated the powerful Thunder in an away game in the first game they were put in the starting lineup. If you are Ham, wouldn’t you use this lineup? As for the later trial and error of this lineup, it was proved that it did have its flaws. That was also a matter of later events. Excluding strong words, who could predict it?

With the Lakers’ current lineup, it is inherently difficult to configure the lineup around James and Big Eyebrow. Of course, James can still play as a ball-holding core, but adding other ball-holding points to allow him to play without the ball more often will reduce his burden; the Lakers’ only two ball-holding points, Russell and Rivers, are on the defensive end. They are all weak links that are easy for opponents to target; Reddish and Vanderbilt are both good defenders this season, but their long-range shots are a mess, which will inevitably increase the burden on the stars. Which end to use and which end to put in each game is a matter of knowledge. In the process of making choices, there is no absolute right answer, and it is difficult to have a broad optimal solution.

Fortunately, this is the NBA, and the team’s management will not believe that fans govern the team. Lakers general manager Pelinka and owner Jeanie Buss are willing to be Ham’s strong backing. After media coverage of the pressure on Hamm, Jenny sent Hamm a lengthy text message of support. Facts have also proved that the management understands the game much better than the fans. Although the Lakers’ record has not yet returned to above 50%, after recently defeating the Clippers and Thunder, the media who clamored for Hamm to be fired are dismayed. Miaofen has died down, and Hamm’s leadership position seems to be stable.

Hamm is an athlete from old Detroit. He has trained with Mike Brown and Budenholzer all the way, which determines that all his decisions are based on ensuring defense. Lakers offense bad? Then defend and push for counterattack. The team’s performance is not good? Then go to Russell and go to Reddish. Moreover, Hamm is not a famous coach, which has the advantage of not being a famous coach. He does not have the airs of a famous coach and does not have excessive self-esteem. If the adjustments he made turned out to be ineffective, he was willing to admit his mistakes and go back to square one. For a head coach who coaches James and thick eyebrows, this humility is also very important. Vogel’s success with the Lakers at that time was not unrelated to his possession of this trait. And now that Hamm is so open and honest, it must also help resolve the rumored anonymous dissatisfaction in the locker room.

Some people say that Hamm has a tough life and can always win crucial victories in the face of adversity. Some say Hamm is favored and the management always trusts him no matter what the situation. But there is no victory that comes out of thin air in the world, and there is no trust without reason. He is tough enough and is always calm when encountering difficulties. He is calm enough and can always unite the players. He is low-key enough and never takes credit for victory. This is not easy to write. Think about his coaching journey for more than a year. He started his coaching career with a record of 2 wins and 10 losses, and then led this team all the way north last season (the term had not invaded the NBA at that time) to the Western Conference Finals, and won the mid-season championship this season. Championship winner. When he took over this team instead of Vogel, it was a 33-49 team that didn’t even make the playoffs, and now this team looks so promising that fans think he He has become a burden to the team. Firing him will be more conducive to the team’s pursuit of the NBA championship. Hasn’t he done enough?

Maybe we should quote here one of his usual post-match sayings – we should really take our hats off to a “rookie” coach like him for kicking the bad guys in the butt.