Lakers News: Insiders Insist Darvin Ham Is Safe In LA Yet Again, A Sign That He May Not Be

Your Los Angeles Lakers find themselves in a bit of a prickly predicament.

After starting out the year with a solid 14-9 record, the club has gone 5-11 since winning the NBA's inaugural In-Season Tournament in Las Vegas a month ago.

The team's slumping offense has been a big X-factor in these recent defeats. While All-Star center Anthony Davis has been playing some of his best two-way basketball since the 2019-20 season, the same can't be said for anyone else.

All-Star forward LeBron James has been mostly healthy, and has produced for himself on offense, but the team as a whole has been stuck in the mud, and James is a far cry from his All-Defensive Team prime on the other end of the hardwood. Austin Reaves has been solid enough on offense, although he's not quite the galvanizing distributor I for one was hoping he would be. He's still young and has room to grow yet, but this just may not be the year for him to take the proverbial "leap."

The team's defense, bolstered by a big and lengthy front line and anchored by Davis in the post, has been as solid as ever. Its 114.0 defensive rating currently ranks 12th in the league. Its 112.5 offensive rating, however, is a paltry 24th.

Second-year Los Angeles head coach Darvin Ham has come under fire of late, mostly for some very questionable starting lineup and rotational choices, where he seems to be prioritizing defense and size over shooting or sometimes even sensible tandem on-court positions. At one (brief) point, he literally started three nominal power forwards at once.

Around the NBA world, speculation has been borderline rampant that Ham may soon be getting the axe from team majority owner Jeanie Buss and team president Rob Pelinka. There were rumors of major play dissatisfaction with Ham as recently as last week.

Ham spoke about that moment, per Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report.

"I had like 50 texts when I checked my phone that day," Ham said. "I'm not on social media, so I don't know what people are saying. But I'm getting text messages saying, 'Hang in there. Are you OK? It's going to be OK. I'm here for you.' I thought somebody died. That was my initial reaction. Then someone sent me story with some unnamed sources and I was like, 'This s--t?' Everything is going to be alright. We've got a good team. We just got more work to do."

Very inside sources have leaked to trusted beat reporters in recent weeks, however, that Ham isn't going anywhere.

Now we've got another such report, as LA continues to struggle.

Sources relay to the very plugged-in Haynes that Ham has been told that he'll be sticking around long-term.

"I speak to Rob every day, and we're always discussing ways to improve our team and what we can do better as a coaching staff," Ham informed Haynes. "It's an open dialogue that I embrace and that is helpful. We're all trying to get this right, and we will."

It does seem like what ails Los Angeles is more of a personnel issue ultimately, though that still doesn't really explain why Ham wasn't trying to maximize his best available players rather than tinker with ill-fitting lineups.