![]() For example, of the franchise’s last ten head coaching hires, only Luke Walton had no previous experience at the helm. When it was first reported that Ham would be the next Lakers manager, instinctive reactions to the hiring ranged from everywhere from extremely positive, to tepid compliments in between, and a well-known local columnist even asked the question: “Darvin, who?”Īlthough the latter sentiment is a bit absurd given Ham’s career as both a player and, more recently, with his success as an assistant, the signing goes against the typical trend of the team. Each construction on the past through experimentation and the embrace of the unknown.Īs for what happened to that big burly with chops in transit from which the show got its name, he’s on his way to Los Angeles, where he’ll soon be holding the slate, tasked with proving once again that sometimes the bets pay off. ![]() It has made its way into modern playbooks with countless variations and tributes to the original recipe. The combination of shooting, direction and movement of the game’s design only evolved from Karl’s initial ATO. A disinterested teacher in a symphony of movement. He grabbed the rock, instantly spun on the baseline (sometimes falling out of bounds in the process) and then tossed a passing rocket to a teammate now open for a three. ![]() Instead, his job was to get the ball to the shooter. Ironically, Ham rarely, if ever, found himself receiving his namesake. A “hammer screen” (or action) would be a pillar in the NBA lexicon for years to come. They would arrive at their destination, free from their defender, after the timely choice of a teammate had helped create the pocket of space. On the weak side, the likes of Ray Allen or Michael Redd would then sprint into the opposite corner with the speed of a cast iron ball thrown from a cannon. The action first involved Ham receiving the ball on the strong wing post. And it would be up to Ham to bring it to light. These were realizations that were informed rather than mere insights, but the execution and effectiveness of his idea, however, was a gamble made in the dark. Karl proceeded to draft a play on the basis of two observations:ġ) the team’s vast collection of perimeter shooters and …Ģ) the keen ability of his robust attacker to read on the fly. It would have been there, in that confusion, where the name of Darvin Ham would be engraved forever in the lexicon of basketball. George Karl, the then bespectacled coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, got up from his chair and called a timeout. Īnd for a short-form recap pod, check out Lakers Lowdown, in which Anthony Irwin recaps the previous day’s news and gets you ready for the day ahead in LakerLand, every weekday morning on the Silver Screen & Roll Podcast feed. You can listen to the full episode below, and to make sure you never miss a show, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. Harrison and I ranked all the likely scenarios, laughed about Draymond Green’s podcasting, and once against said our farewells to each other. Hell, as Staples is no longer the sponsor of the building they play in, the Lakers don’t even have access to that cool little EASY button, either. Yes, this likely means taking on longer-term money for players who you’d probably consider overpaid, but as Westbrook is among the most distressed assets in the NBA right now, there simply isn’t a painless way out of this situation. This becomes rather difficult to do when roughly a third of the salary cap is taken up by dead money.Īs satisfying as it might be for people throughout the organization to just tell Westbrook to go away, the Lakers need to utilize his contract to hopefully bring in a few useful players and replenish the depth that has been stripped away from the championship roster we saw only two seasons ago. They still employ LeBron James and Anthony Davis and the expectations as that remains the case is to compete and, preferably, win championships. What complicates things from the Lakers ’side of this equation is that merely moving on from Westbrook isn’t nearly enough. This week in “The Lakers Lounge,” Harrison Faigen (who is back for some reason?) And I listed all the potential ways the Westbrook-Lakers relationship can move forward – whether that’s together or separately – and listed them in order of how appealing we find them. Unfortunately in sports, though, those tricky little things like contracts can get in the way and for now, the Lakers and Westbrook are stuck with each other. ![]() After a season like the Lakers and especially Russell Westbrook had last year, it makes sense that everyone involved would want a nice, clean break from each other.
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