Halfway through the season, the Los Angeles Lakers are still hovering in ninth place in the West, and their record has not even reached 50%. As a team that spent a lot of effort and money to build this offseason, the Lakers are in an embarrassing situation right now. Not only that, but the Lakers are facing the problem of readjusting the lineup, but if they want to change the current status quo of the team, the Lakers still need to do one thing, that is, to reuse Davis.
Since Ham became the head coach of the Lakers, he has said that he will give Davis a high enough tactical position, even if the team will start playing small ball, but Davis is definitely the top priority in his strategy. However, Ham still has not set up a special strategy for Davis, and even weakens Davis's tactical role at some moments, and it is precisely because Davis is not used well that the Lakers' results are so unsatisfactory.
Now Hamm's use of Davis is: let Davis play the main offense in the first quarter, and the rest of the time depends on the situation on the court, and there is a high probability that Davis will not be singled. Just like the Cavaliers' use of James back then, let Love take the lead in the opening game, and then hand it to James in the second half. While Hamm's play-up would allow Davis and James to conserve enough fitness, it would obviously weaken Davis' performance on the court in his prime years.
With the Lakers' record stagnating and even slipping a little, Ham's position has become precarious. Rather than adjusting personnel rotation through trades, the most important thing Ham should do is to find a way to improve the Lakers' record. So far this season, the Lakers have used multiple starting lineups, and from this point of view, Ham is indeed trying to figure it out, but it is not being used in the right place.
Ham apparently pinned all his hopes on James, but with his lack of on-the-spot command, James's support for Ham also changed direction, and even good doers captured the footage of James giving Ham a blank eye on the sidelines. In fact, even if James is dissatisfied with Hamm's command, it is because Hamm's tactical arrangement is indeed a little unbalanced, and the biggest link is the need to reuse Davis. As early as the second half of last season's regular season, the Lakers rushed to the playoffs because of Davis' outburst, and Ham should obviously learn from last season's experience.
So far this season, Davis continues to lead the Lakers with many stats. Davis is now shooting 32 percent from three-point range, which is close to the level of the Lakers' championship-winning years, and even now Davis is averaging 3.7 assists per game. It can be seen that Davis is actively linking the whole team and is willing to contribute to the team on both offensive and defensive ends. Under this premise, it is clear that Hamm needs to reuse Davis even more.
Both the Lakers and Ham need Davis' outburst to help, especially Ham, who needs to prove that last season's accolades weren't a flash in the pan after leading the Lakers to the Western Conference Finals last season. If Ham can apply more tactical play to Davis, then the Lakers will hopefully get better in the second half of the season, or his position will be in jeopardy.