After a rough 2023-24 season, the Los Angeles Lakers made the move everyone saw coming when they fired former head coach Darvin Ham.
Ham, coming off a Western Conference Finals run the year prior, seemed to have built a solid foundation with the Lakers but his questionable decision making and lack of tactical acumen largely contributed to his dismissal. A five-game loss to the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs was enough for the organization to let go of Ham.
Throughout the season, it felt like Ham’s grip on the job was loosening as players seemingly started to tune him out. LeBron James even reportedly lost faith in Ham, perhaps the biggest indictment on his tenure with the Lakers.
Ham eventually landed on his feet, agreeing to become an assistant coach for the Milwaukee Bucks under Doc Rivers. Prior to their preseason matchup on Thursday night, Rivers expressed his confusion with Los Angeles’ decision to part ways with Ham via the Bucks’ YouTube channel:
“It’s been great,” Rivers said. “First of all, he’s been here even longer than me. He knows things that I didn’t know. He has relationships with the players. Another guy that can trust. Trust is so important for players. And more importantly, he deserves it.
“I’m not going to get into the whole thing that happened there, but he took a team to a Western Finals, and then the following year, he won the in-season tournament, which they say we should have a lot of value on, and then they release him. It literally makes no sense, but it happens. It happens to all of us. It’s part of what we do. But Darvin Ham’s a coach, he should be on the sidelines, and I wanted him next to me.”
Rivers is obviously standing up for a member of his staff and while he makes valid points, the fact of the matter is that the team simply could not run it back with Ham at the helm. Between poor timeout usage, inconsistent rotation and lineup choices and a lack of self-awareness, Ham wasn’t the right man for the job and the Lakers are certainly hoping new head coach JJ Redick is the answer.
LeBron James and JJ Redick not happy about preseason game in Milwaukee
Los Angeles played their third preseason game against Milwaukee, but the schedule is odd on paper as they had several days off before flying out and will then play three games in four nights next week. Both James and Redick lamented their preseason schedule but don’t have much of a choice except to play it out.
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