Ham: `We believe in what we have'
Lakers coach Darvin Ham mostly stayed away from directly commenting on the reported trade inquiries his teams received for star forward LeBron James, who wasn't available for Wednesday night's road game against the Utah Jazz because of an outer left ankle injury.
“To put it (simply), the alignment that I have with (Lakers governor) Jeanie (Buss) and (General Manager) Rob (Pelinka) is they handle that stuff,” Ham said pregame. “It's my job to try to extract the most positive performances out of our team.”
But Ham reiterated the message he and several others within the organization have throughout the season despite their 29-26 record and being in ninth place in the Western Conference entering Wednesday: they believe their current group is better than their record suggests.
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“We said it early, we said it often, we've been derailed at certain segments through injuries with our consistency but at the end of the day, maybe people (did not) believe it at the trade deadline, but we believe in what we have in our locker room wholeheartedly,” Ham said. “And we feel like what we have in our locker room believes in us and the process of us trying to turn this thing and catch some rhythm in a positive manner.
“And that's what you've seen over the last six games. So, all of that fantasy basketball — coulda, woulda, shoulda stuff — it's not my responsibility. My responsibility is to coach the hell out of these guys that have a Laker uniform on.”
James' agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports Group, went on the record with ESPN's Brian Windhorst to make it clear that his client was going to remain with the Lakers through last Thursday's trade deadline and that they weren't seeking a trade.
But that didn't stop a couple of teams from reaching out to see whether they could pry the 20-time All-Star out of Los Angeles.
Golden State Warriors governor Joe Lacob, with the encouragement of Warriors forward Draymond Green, who is also one of Paul's clients, reached out to the Lakers about acquiring James, according to a Wednesday morning report from ESPN's Ramona Shelburne and Adrian Wojnarowski that cited unnamed sources.
Buss and Pelinka both made it clear that the Lakers wanted to keep the 39-yearold James and had no desire to trade him, but Buss told Lacob to reach out to Paul for clarity on James' desires, the report states.
The most encouraging part of the report, at least from the Lakers' standpoint, is that not only did Paul tell Lacob and Warriors GM Mike Dunleavy Jr. that James didn't have any interest in a trade and wanted to remain a Laker, but James is also focused on returning to the Lakers in the offseason.