Lakers: Darvin Ham Reveals His Offensive Strategy with Russell Westbrook
At the moment, Darvin Ham doesn't know exactly what his roster nor his coaching staff is going to look like at the start of next season, but regardless, he already knows what his biggest obstacle will be in his first year as the Lakers head coach - Russell Westbrook.
Westbrook is coming off a poor season in LA that also featured a very public feud with fans, and more importantly, a public and private feud with former head coach Frank Vogel.
Part of the reason the Lakers hired Ham was his ability to convince the Lakers head coaching search committee that he can maximize Westbrook in his offensive system.
This week, Ham made an appearance on the Dan Patrick Show and in the interview, the new Lakers head coach talked about how he would like to use Westbrook offensively.
“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.”
Ham, as he did in his introductory press conference, highlighted how Westbrook needs to start playing defense at a high level for the Lakers to be successful.
“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."
Russ hasn't exactly been a defensive dynamo in his career, but if he somehow buys into what Ham is selling on both sides of the ball, perhaps he'll be an efficient scorer and a proficient defender next year.
But this is Russell Westbrook. One of the most stubborn players in the league.
