The season has been over months agofor the Los Angeles Lakers, but now that the 2021-22 calendar is officially completed, they can move on and set their sights in the offseason. Fortunately, they already have a new head coach to do so.
Darvin Ham has already gotten to work as the new head coach of the Purple and Gold, knowing that he’s facing the biggest challenge in his career thus far. Ham will not only be expected to get the team into the postseason, but also to get the best out of the players on the roster – especially Russell Westbrook.
Despite Russ’ future in LA seemed uncertain, Ham made it clear from day one that he wants him on his team. Recently, he even explained how he plans to improve his production and make him a key contributor.
Darvin Ham explains his plans for Russell Westbrook
“I think the style of play we’re going to have, you know, all of those guys — not only just Russ but LeBron, AD — they’re going to be able to share the load,” Ham said on The Dan Patrick Show,via Heavy.com. “And one thing I mentioned to Russ is the way I’m built, the success I’ve seen — especially most recently in the last nine years and the last four years being with Coach Bud in Milwaukee, also in Atlanta, but in Milwaukee — one thing we always preached and will continue to preach to be our foundation of our teams is a defensive mindset, being able to defend at a high level.
“And I challenged him and he accepted the challenge. That’s a part of the word ‘sacrifice’ we use. And being able to move him around in different spaces on the floor as we go back on the offensive end. Sometimes he’s going to be off the ball slashing. Sometimes he’s going to play in the dunker. Sometimes he’s going to be initiating things. He may post up a little bit. He may be the screener in pick-and-rolls.
“So, being able to diversify his plan of attack where he’s not just rushing the ball up the court facing three defenders every time and having to put his, like I said in the press conference, run to the telephone booth and put their capes on. Everybody needs to be involved with what we’re doing on both sides of the ball and I think it’ll make it easier, lighten the load and also allow us to get stronger as the season gets longer.”
It will be interesting to see if Westbrook changes his image in Los Angeles under a new head coach. We all know how his first year went, but maybe he can seize this opportunity to prove why the Lakers shouldn’t regret having landed him.
