The Los Angeles Lakers are currently in the midst of their head coaching search, looking for a replacement for Frank Vogel that can get the team back into championship contention.
The Lakers are being diligent in their search, already interview a number of candidates such as Terry Stotts, Mark Jackson, Darvin Ham, Adrian Griffin, Charles Lee, Kenny Atkinson and perhaps more that haven’t been reported.
To this point, no true front-runner has emerged as the Lakers are still in the early stages of their search.
A couple of names keep coming up more than others when the job is mentioned though and that’s Ham and Stotts. According to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, they are viewed as the early favorites for the job:
The Lakers have already been linked to over a dozen candidates for their head-coaching vacancy, but none of them have emerged as a clear front-runner yet. Ham and Terry Stotts are probably the closest to current favorites.
It was previously reported that the Lakers were looking for someone with past head coaching experience to replace Vogel, although perhaps after interviewing some first-time candidates, they are more open to the idea:
Aside from Nick Nurse, Quin Snyder or another elite coach becoming available, it looks like the Lakers are strongly considering the upside of a rookie head coach.
If that is the case then it bodes well for Ham, who has a ton of experience as an NBA assistant most recently with the Milwaukee Bucks but has yet to get a job as a head coach.
Perhaps the Lakers will look to put together an experienced staff if they hire someone like Ham as head coach. It remains to be seen if he is open to it, but Stotts would make a good assistant on Ham’s staff if he is hired.
Rivers to remain with 76ers
One other name who was perhaps considered the favorite to land the Lakers job until Friday was Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doc Rivers.
The Lakers had reported interest in him if Philadelphia were to let him go, but after they were eliminated from the postseason, 76ers president of basketball operations Daryl Morey came out and said that they are not making a change and Rivers will be returning for the 2022-23 season.
With that being the case, it seems the Lakers are turning their attention to Ham, Stotts and other realistic candidates.
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