The Lakers are off to a rough start this season, and if you look at the roster breakdown past the handful of obvious big names, there’s no clear reason to expect a big reversal of fortune. Via the OC Register:
Coach Darvin Ham called it being real. But for the Lakers, the truth might be a little too real.
On the heels of a 139-116 loss to the Utah Jazz, the Lakers’ eighth loss in just 10 games, Ham said his team needed to defend better, rebound better and communicate better. Then he reached outside of normal coaching discourse – into the Lakers’ payroll.
“We’re tax offenders, right?” Ham asked rhetorically. “We just can’t go out and start spending money everywhere to build a team. We have three big-time first-ballot future Hall of Famers that a chunk of our budget is being spent on. And there’s only so much left.”
The rookie head coach somewhat awkwardly exposed the flank of the front office, which would like to focus on anything else except the shaky build of the roster around three max-contract salary stars who still haven’t played well together, complemented by a host of largely veteran’s minimum contract players. And yet, after a discouraging start to the season, it’s an unavoidable sore spot as the organization teeters on the edge of another letdown year.
