Adam Auslund on Darvin Ham and the Lakers

Adam Auslund and Rodney Pete debate Darvin Ham and the Lakers issues this season.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Salty a. Adam Austlin, hostof Clipper Countdown, the halftime and a
postgame joins us. All right,Adam, what should the Lakers do?
I think they have to move onfrom Darbnham. Look, if you want
the easiest move right now to improvethe roster, it has to be moving
on from Darvinham. I just thinkthat's what's going to happen. I think

(00:22):
it's obvious. The writing's on thewall right now. I'm not calling for
anyone's job. I like Darvin Hamas a person, but you have to
optimize lineups. That is the nameof the game in today's NBA. If
you go on NBA dot Com,there's something called lineup tool and you can
check what the best five man lineupsare in the NBA. And that's how
some of the NBA nerds like myselflike to look through and see who's playing

(00:46):
well with who, and Darvirenham couldnever figure it out. All the talk
coming out of last season and makingthat run to the Western Conference finals was
we played a team that had morecontinuity than us in the Denver Nuggets,
a team that had been together forlonger. So they bring back in Ruby
Hotching Moore, they sign him,they extend him, they bring back d
Low even after he h I don'tknow if that quote was directed at him,

(01:10):
but as the bed in the WesternConference Finals last year, Austin Reeves
gets an extension. The point wasto run it back and do it with
the same guys, and those youngguys are going to get better. The
problem was you start the year offand you can't figure out who your starting
lineup is when you did in theplayoffs last season, what happened to the

(01:30):
carryover from that? There are alwaysthere's no carryover, Adam, though there's
not always automatically. Oh, let'scarry it over from last year. Easy
solution. Okay, until it stopsworking. I'm going with the lineups that
got me to the Western Conference Finals? Is that fair? Is that fair?
The season they had band out forsome time. Correct, that hurt

(01:55):
them, correct, but eventually different. So playing Torrian Prince and having him
with a losing record when he wasa starter at twenty four and twenty five,
meaning he started about fifty games thisseason, that was the solution,
giving him a longer leash than D'AngeloRussell than Austin Rivers. Then okay,

(02:16):
Ruy Hotchimora when he had those guyscoming off the bench, right, but
d Lo being his inconsistent self,how long do you roll with that?
Okay, he has two three badgames in a row, and all of
a sudden, now the same peopleare saying stick with the same lineups are
going why you got d Lo inthe lineup? Why is? Maybe maybe
players are being inconsistent because they don'tknow who they're playing with each and every

(02:38):
night. When they lost ten ofthirteen games coming out of the nd season
tournament where they won the championship,hop out, Oh, you don't think
continuity matters. Absolutely, you don'tthink chemistry matters eight years and that's a
cop out. I don't know whoI'm playing with. I don't know.
I can't play because I don't knowwho's gonna be next to me every night.
I don't know who's gonna be aswell. Every other team value familiarity

(03:00):
out there, and guys that haveplayed together on the gu with the cop
out when they things go bad assomething to say we don't have any continuity.
It's it. It's true to acertain extent, but to lean on
it and lean all the way intoit like that it feels like the Lakers
have and everybody outside of that camphas, or even inside that camp has.

(03:21):
To me, it's just it isnot taking and being accountable for your
lack of production. Hey, lookthey went nineteen and six. Once he
figured out ruy Hachi Moore should bein the starting lineup, Rodney and where
was Everybody else knew that he shouldhave been the starting lineup but Darvin Ham
for months. Everybody else had thatfigured out except the guy who's your head

(03:43):
coach, who's playing Van do CamReddish and Torrian Prince in the starting lineup.
And they completely tanked right after winningthe end season tournament because of bad
rotations that they lost ten to thirteendifferent being he being a good coach on
the n season tournament plays the rotationsto being a horrible coach because he went

(04:04):
totally away from everything. Well,I don't think what happens in December defines
your season. I think that's prettyclear at this point. This team,
of course, unraveled afterwards. Andwhen you play six different starting during a
thirteen game stretch, six different startinglineups during a thirteen game stretch where you
lose to the San Antonio Spurs,you lose to the Bulls, you lose

(04:27):
to the Memphis Grizzlies, and thenwhat did Darbn Ham say after that?
This was the quote that people aregoing to be looking back on if he
is let go by the Los AngelesLakers. It is what it is.
It's the NBA. Man, thisis a marathon, and you know,
you have to look at the totalityof the picture. I'm tired of people
living and dying with every single gamewe play like it's it's it's ludicrous.

(04:53):
Actually, it's like, come on, man, this is a marathon and
we're we hit a tough stretch.You know, is the same same team
that you know we played some highlevel games a little while ago and we
just got to get back to that. Huh. I wonder if that will
come back to haunt him. Consideringyou win three more ball games and you're
not even in the playing tournament.How do you lose those games of San

(05:15):
Antonio, Chicago, Memphis, Miamiwithout Jimmy Butler? They can't break the
zone. How many players have weheard take veiled shots at their head coach
this season? Right? Everybody?Did it? You hear it all the
time? No, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, you do nothear that every night from every other
happened in Milwaukee. It's happened inMilwaukee this year. Sure team, and

(05:36):
you think there's stability there happened.You think there's stability there? No,
what I'm saying, is it happened? You just said that often? Does
it happen that people think veiled Philadelphia? It's happening. I mean, it's
happening. It's happening all over theinternet. It's it's not happening all over
the NBA every night. I happened. Players aren't going out of their way

(05:59):
to credit the other team's head coachafter they lose a ballgame for having their
team more well prepared than their owncoach had them prepared. Okay, okay,
okay, Now, let so Darvinhamhas to go. I think everybody
knows that, like him or not, he's going to get it because somebody's
got to get it for this,all right. So let's say he's gone.
Now, Adam, what else canthey do? I mean, if

(06:20):
they keep Lebron ad and they will, how can they build a team around
them? They're kind of a noman's land. No, I wouldn't say
that at all, because the thingis you talked about, well, they
can't bring in Donovan Mitchell if theystill have Lebron James, if he resigns,
and we're acting right now like that'sa foregone conclusion. I don't know
if that's the case. I thinkit's the most likely scenario that he comes

(06:43):
back. He could sign a threeyear, one hundred and sixty million dollar
deal with the Lakers. He couldsign another one in one. That time
period is basically June twenty ninth.That's when he has to decide whether whether
to pick up that fifty million dollarplayer option. But before that you have
the draft. Right after that youhave free agency. I think he's putting
pressure on the organization once again tostart making some moves. Well, okay,

(07:05):
he does that every year, sothat Donovan Mitchell is under contract for
another season, so they could tradefor him and still have Lebron and still
have Anthony Davis, same with TreyYoung. I don't like that nearly as
much if I'm a Laker fan,because your point of attack defense will never
be able to stop anybody. He'sjust a turnstile. He's too small out

(07:27):
there, he's too slight a frameeven when he does give effort. But
Donovan Mitchell, he's that guy.He's still twenty seven bred. You did
bring up the knee injury he's beendealing with. I think he had some
plasma blood spinning thing going on overthe last couple of months. He hasn't
looked the SAME's that's worrisome to me. They just lost the last two games
in Orlando. That series is tiedup at two games a piece Orlando and
the Cleveland Cavaliers. But there's somethinghe can come back from. I mean,

(07:49):
this in need just a deal fromthis year? Are they are they
worried that this is a this isa chronic, prolonged situation for him.
I mean, just because you knowI work for the Clippers and they have
had a lot of injuries, doesn'tmean I'm an expert here at this point.
But I don't think they're overly concernedabout it at this point. But

(08:13):
the difference is whether or not theCleveland Cavaliers think they can retain him or
they feel like he's a laying duckin his final year and they don't want
to lose him for nothing that wouldput the pressure on him or on them
to make a trade, maybe withthe Los Angeles Lakers for a real quick
What do the Lakers have to giveup in order to get probably RUI,
probably Austin Reeves. Yeah, theyhave three first round picks. They can

(08:35):
move as well. And you dothat in a heartbeat and heart I think
you have to Donovan Mitchell. Hecan do it all for you. Yeah,
a difference maker. Here's a differenceman. He's special. He's been
special in the playoffs at times too. I mean that series he won for
the Utah Jazz. I think hisfirst time out there in twenty seventeen,
twenty eighteen, somewhere there, Imean he was he was looking like Dwayne
Wade in the playoffs. Yeah,so it took over. He took over.

(08:58):
Yeah, I know he can takeover a game when when an aging
Lebron and an ad that you knowis there. I mean, I had
a great year this year, butsomebody else that can take over a game.
Lakers haven't had that. And he'sa guy that can do that.
He sure can't. And guys,we talk about what should the Lakers do?
What should the Lakers do? Howabout not put yourself in a position

(09:18):
where you have to take on Denverin the first round correct sometimes, which
means playing the right lineups and winningball games and not treating it like it's
just a marathon. It is asprinter. In the regular season in the
Western Conference, those games were meaningful. People thought they weren't. Well,
guess what, you win three moreball games and you're the fifth seed in
the West. That's all it wouldhave taken. That's the difference right there.

(09:39):
You got to put yourself in abetter position where it's the path of
least resistance out there. You're playingthe Clippers or Dallas, so that's that's
you know, you're feeling, hey, fight and that's a much better option
than defending champs and the Denver Nuggetsthough that have beat you what eleven straight
times before they finally took them downin game four. Come on that that's
what it comes down to. HeDarbynham got seventy plus games from Lebron and

(10:03):
ad and they still finish eighth inthe Western Conference. That is what people
are going to be looking at.Guys, all right, Adam, thanks
for hanging appreciate it.