Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James recently praised head coach Darvin Ham for stabilizing his lineups and rotations, which has led to five wins in the team’s last seven games.
A big reason for the Lakers’ struggles this season has been the constant changing of starting lineups and rotations. Injuries have been the reason for that, but in recent weeks, the team has finally started getting healthy which has allowed Ham to stick with the same group.
Perhaps one more change is necessary, however. The starting lineup that Ham has been going with includes Taurean Prince alongside James, Anthony Davis, Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell.
The team has fared much better with Jarred Vanderbilt in Prince’s spot though, which is the starting lineup that Ham went with down the stretch of the 2022-23 season and in the playoffs when the Lakers made a run to the Western Conference Finals.
That group has hardly played together this season, logging just 30 total minutes with 19 of them coming in Saturday night’s double overtime victory over the Golden State Warriors. They have a plus-30.3 net rating together, which is the highest net rating by far of any Lakers lineup that has played a minimum of 30 minutes together this season.
When asked about that lineup after the win over the Warriors, James spoke to the chemistry they have built up from last year as why it has worked so well, via Spectrum SportsNet:
