Lakers News: Darvin Ham Explains Why He Started Rui Hachimura Vs Hornets

What did Austin Reaves ever do to him?

On Thursday night, Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham had another prime opportunity to reinsert guard Austin Reaves into his starting lineup, when swingman Cam Reddish became a late scratch due to a groin injury.

Instead, in an eventual 133-112 blowout of the Charlotte Hornets, Ham opted to elevate power forward Rui Hachimura into his first five.

For those keeping count at home, this means that, yes, technically three power forwards were suddenly in LA's starting lineup.

Despite that group's success, long-term it's pretty clear that Reaves needs to be come a permanent starter, at least to yours truly. 

Los Angeles needs a supplemental creator alongside LeBron James, someone with a handle who can shoot on the perimeter, while being able to keep up with backcourt players. Ham's focus is clearly on switchy perimeter pieces who can defend, with little regard for floor spacing. He needs to rethink that approach.

Hachimura, who's connecting on 37.5% of his 3.3 triple tries a night, still makes plenty of sense as a starter to me, despite some positional overlap with James, but I'd slot him in over Jarred Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt currently serves as the team's starting four, though he assumes the top defensive perimeter task while James is generally hidden on the weakest of the five opposing guys. So, to recap, I'm proposing a starting group of Reaves at the point, 3-and-D wing Taurean Prince at shooting guard, James at small forward now, Hachimura at power forward, and Anthony Davis at center.

After the win, Ham explained his decision to start Hachimura, per Helene Elliott of The Los Angeles Times. Though Ham didn't mention Reaves, it sure seems (reading between the lines) that he's trying to justify the promotion fo Hachimura over Reaves.

“We knew they were going to be playing fast, with a lot of force," Ham said. "They’re athletic. They run fast and they jump high so that was the mind-set behind putting a bigger body out there with those other four,” Ham said of why he started Hachimura for the fourth time this season. “And maintaining our size and athleticism and our speed. And that’s what he provided tonight.”