Lakers News: How Darvin Ham Feels About LeBron James At Point Guard
For the past two games, your Los Angeles Lakers have been exploring a new starting lineup: one that features LeBron James at point guard.
A 129-point offensive explosion against the 18-9 Oklahoma City Thunder that resulted in an LA victory sparked the notion that this might be the long-term solution for a struggling Lakers offense.
Christmas Day, however, proved otherwise, as the offense stalled against the Celtics, falling down by as many as 18 in the first quarter alone (can you link postgame recap when it's done).
This raises questions about if LeBron playing the point caused some of these issues, or if it was more related to starting 5's lack of shooting, as none of Cam Reddish, Jarred Vanderbilt, or Anthony Davis, are regarded as even average shooters.
We can all do as much analysis as we'd like, but the opinion that it ultimately comes d own to is that of Darvin Ham. Here's his take on LeBron at point guard:
Clearly, Ham is a fan, as he sees it as a vehicle to increase playmaking and optimize the team's ball movement, as well as ball security.
To examine alternatives to James playing the point, D'Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves are candidates to eventually take the role over. Russell was the team's starting PG since the 2023 trade deadline, while Reaves has functionally been playing PG off the bench.
James provides far more rim pressure and has better passing vision than Reaves and Russell, as well as comparably better chemistry with Anthony Davis.
Ultimately, however, the lineups with James at point often result in him being the only ball-handler/playmaker/creator on the floor, which is never a good idea for any team. Having multiple ball-handlers is typically optimal, as it allows different plays/actions to be run through different people, while also forcing the defense to be honest with multiple players' abilities with the ball in their hands.
To that end, I personally believe that James and Reaves starting together in the backcourt is best, as it allows for two solid ball-handlers/playmakers/creators on the floor, which, alongside the presence of Anthony Davis, should create for a fairly lethal half-court offense.
We'll see what Ham ends up doing, but seeing as the objective of the new starting lineup was to maximize defensive performance, and they've given up 120 and 126 points in their past two games, respectively, there's no reason to continue to roll with it.
