Is Darvin Ham The Most Unpopular Lakers Coach Ever? (Plus, Improving the 3-Point Defense)
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The Lakers have some areas where they need to tighten up. One big one? Defending the 3-point shot. The Lakers have spent the season getting cooked by opponents from the 3-point line. Not just in the quantity of shots they seem to hit, but also the nature of the players that tend to hit them. Fans certainly recognize the pattern wherein a normally meh shooter gets hot vs. the Lakers and seems to go nuts? Why has that been happening? Because it can't all be bad luck. Are the Lakers allowing not just too many 3's, but the wrong kind? Too many of too high quality? To be sure, the 3's are a trade off, strategically, and not even a bad one, automatically. But why do they often turn out that way? Is Darvin Ham adjusting fast enough to in-game situations? That discussion leads nicely into one prompted by a text received from a colleague: Is Darvin more unpopular at this point than Byron Scott? Who, it should be noted, was VERY unpopular as Lakers coach. (Beloved as a player... not as a coach.) Yes. It seems that he is. But why? There's a lot of context in there that helps explain, going well beyond any actual coaching decisions on the floor. It gets to team expectations, the context of last season vs. this one, and even the recent history of the Lakers organization in spaces that don't have any direct relationship to Darvin, but are nonetheless frustrating. HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky SEGMENT 1: Why are the Lakers constantly getting burned from 3? SEGMENT 2: What that issue has to do with the perception of Darvin Ham. SEGMENT 3: Is he more unpopular than Byron Scott, even? Why?
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