Now that the Los Angeles Lakers have a new head coach in place with the hiring of Darvin Ham, they can begin to shift their focus elsewhere to get the team back into contention in 2022-23.
Before they begin putting the roster together though, the Lakers must surround Ham with an adequate coaching staff. He is expected to have the ability to choose his own staff, which is a big change from the Lakers’ last coaching search.
While it will likely take time for Ham to identify who he wants to hire, it looks like a number of Lakers assistants from Frank Vogel staff will not be retained.
According to Dave McMenamin and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Ham has informed David Fizdale, Mike Penberthy and John Lucas III that he will not be. bringing them back.
Ham has been discussing assistant coaching roles with several possible candidates around the league, sources tell ESPN. That’s a process that’s expected to be ongoing for weeks. https://t.co/UPhZZI4zbJ
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 7, 2022
This doesn’t come as a huge surprise considering head coaches usually like to bring in their own staff members that they have previous relationships with.
Noticeably absent from the list is Phil Handy though, so perhaps he has been identified as a coach that Ham would like to keep around. That would be very good news for the Lakers as Handy is known to be one of the best player development coaches in the league and has close relationships with LeBron James, Anthony Davis and other Lakers players.
Ham explains what he’s looking for in coaching staff
During Ham’s introductory press conference, he explained what he will be looking for in members of his coaching staff.
“Me personally, I shared this with Rob and Kurt and everybody that was on the basketball committee during the interview process, I like coaches that like to roll up their sleeves and be able to get out there,” he said.
“Where I come from the last nine years, we did everything. We did player development, we did scouting, I had to step in as the head coach on a few occasions, but it was a team. It wasn’t no coordinators on either side of the ball, we all pitched in on all aspects of our team basketball, offensively and defensively. So I’m looking to build that similar type of staff.”
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