After being eliminated by the reigning champion Denver Nuggets in the first round, the Los Angeles Lakers had to evaluate every aspect of the team going into this summer. When change is on the horizon, it usually starts with the head coach and that was Darvin Ham, who was fired shortly after the Game 5 loss.
Despite making the Western Conference Finals last season, there were still some obvious flaws with Ham, starting with lineups and rotations. In a conference that proved to be super competitive, Ham spent too much experimenting and ultimately cost L.A. some games in the early part of the season.
When determining Ham’s fate, factoring in Anthony Davis and LeBron James’ opinions was crucial. With Davis having more of a say in structural changes, it seems his opinion meant a lot when deciding to let Ham go, as reported by Sam Amick of The Athletic on The Rich Eisen Show:
“When they chose to fire Darvin Ham, I was told that one of the many, many considerations was that it was pretty evident that AD was not on board anymore with Darvin and they know, like everybody else, that AD has a history of having asked for trades in the past. That’s how he got to the Lakers from New Orleans. Last thing they wanted was for AD to be frustrated with the situation and maybe have those types of thoughts cross his mind.”
While Ham had a record above .500 in his two seasons and guided the Lakers to the playoffs both times, the writing was on the wall and unfortunately, head coaches don’t have a long leash these days.
However, it became clear that a new voice was needed, especially after Davis himself called out Ham during the Nuggets series.
Davis is the future of the Lakers, so it’s not surprising that his opinion was taken into consideration when making a coaching change. Furthermore, Davis is expected to involved in the Lakers’ search for a new head coach, perhaps even more so than James.
Darvin Ham expected to be head coaching candidate elsewhere
After finishing his first head coaching gig, it is safe to assume Darvin Ham learned a lot running one of the biggest organizations in all of sports in the Lakers. He paid his dues as an assistant, but it remains to be seen if he returns to that tole or wants another opportunity to be a head coach. However, it seems that Ham is rumored to be a head coaching candidate elsewhere with the Washington Wizards being the lone vacancy right now.
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