The Los Angeles Lakers built their roster with the intention of being the toughest and most physical team on the court.
With LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the front court, Ham relied on their size advantage and that’s the main reason they turned around their 2023-24 season. When Jarred Vanderbilt was injured, Ham guarded the front court by inserting Rui Hachimura.
Hachimura had experience with the rest of the starters after playing alongside them last year and the change benefited the team.
Ham explained why he thinks Hachimura has thrived as a starter. “I just think the attention that LeBron and AD both get on the offensive end, Rui is a guy that can catch and shoot, take it off the dribble, iso some in the post,” Ham said before the game Sunday against the Indiana Pacers.
“He can do all that. But that leaves a defense. When you play a team, there will normally not be all defenders in that starting lineup. You’re going to have a few guys who are high-level defenders and they have to choose who they’re going to focus on and you have two first-ballot Hall of Famers, an All-Star in DLo and a high-level player in AR , high level player in Rui. We can’t defend everyone, even with top defensive players. So he’s benefiting a lot from the attention they’re getting and he’s done a good job capitalizing on it. »
Besides the offensive side, Ham noted how Hachimura has affected their defense and how teams attack them. “That’s something we’ve been working on, just the communication factor, being in the right place as early as possible. Definitely defensive rebounding. When you start an offensive group like that, full of firepower, there are certain things that are give and take.
“We see almost every team in the league playing extremely fast, so that’s something that we balance and we have different coverages and different plans that we can put in place to try to deflect that. But at the end of the day, the The fruits of the work they put in are at a level where it makes perfect sense to keep this group as it is.
Hachimura also believes the new starting lineup has worked and that his improved play is because the group is more comfortable playing together.
Hopefully Hachimura remains as effective because the Lakers will need him down the stretch.
Darvin Ham sees improvements in Lakers’ next play mentality
Ham has been preaching all season that his team needs to focus better on the next play. Recently, it feels like the message has finally started to get through and Ham acknowledged he has seen improvements in this area.
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