Report: Lakers saw Darvin Ham’s response to Anthony Davis after Game 3 as ‘unnecessary amplification’

The heat is turning up on Lakers head coach Darvin Ham as more criticism about his decisions and comments continue to pour out of the Lakers organization, including his public back-and-forth with Anthony Davis during the playoffs.

The Lakers season ended after a Game 5 loss on Monday versus Denver and now the gloves are coming off on the messiness of the year.

Much of the early chatter has been about Lakers head coach Darvin Ham and how his decision to bench D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves “did not sit well” with the team and his job security being in “serious peril.”

During the playoffs, though, another notable moment relative to Ham’s future saw Anthony Davis say the team “didn’t know what it was doing” at times against the Nuggets. Ham would push back against those comments, saying he “would agree to disagree” with AD. Again, though, that back-and-forth with his star was not well-received, as reported by Shams Charania, Jovan Buha and Sam Amick of The Athletic.

Ham’s response was viewed as an unnecessary amplification of Davis’ comments, according to team sources. Ham could have downplayed the remark or even agreed with his superstar’s criticism of the team’s execution after that blown 20-point lead. But Ham instead talked up his coaching staff and dismissed the sentiment behind Davis’ comments as simply frustration. The notion of engaging in a public back-and-forth with a franchise cornerstone in Davis, who signed the richest annual contract extension in league history in early August, was seen internally as ill-advised.

It’s hard for Ham to respond to Davis’ comments and not pick a side. If you agree with AD, then it sort of acknowledges you haven’t done a great job. On the other hand, if you disagree, it can cause this kind of friction with the team and also can appear like you refuse to take accountability.

It seems the latter is the sentiment amongst the Lakers, as Dave McMenamin of ESPN reported on the team's frustration over Ham’s lack of accountability.

A team source was confounded by Ham’s lack of accountability, questioning to ESPN the merit in boasting about his coaching staff’s preparedness while the Nuggets ran their win streak against them into double-digits. Ham’s adjustments, or lack thereof, stood out so much that Nuggets coach Michael Malone said in between Games 2 and 3 that his team had “gone over adjustments [for] different players and play-calls that we haven’t even had to show yet.”

In the eyes of several team sources, Ham rarely, if ever, publicly cited the fault of his schemes, game planning or rotations.

The best ability may be availability, but a close second is accountability.

It's hard to remember a time Ham put the onus on himself regarding his decisions. This season, he often spoke in generalities about what had gone wrong in defeat and ways to improve the team. On that aspect, the players are correct, saying he never publicly took ownership of the Lakers’ shortcomings.

It remains to be seen whether this will be enough to cost him his job, but we’ve seen two years under Ham, and while the team has found success with the In-Season Tournament title and a Western Conference Finals appearance, the question that must be answered is whether Ham can take this team to the NBA Finals.

Some might think the answer is yes, but others would agree to disagree.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.