Now that the Los Angeles Lakers have been knocked out of the NBA playoffs by the Denver Nuggets, the clock has started on what will be a very important and possibly busy offseason for them.
A number of their players, including LeBron James, could or will become free agents once the new league year begins this summer. It could lead to them having a considerably different roster when they report to training camp at the end of this summer.
Of course, a big question is who will lead them when training camp opens?
Head coach Darvin Ham has been heavily criticized by fans for months, although according to reports, key members of the team’s front office have been reluctant to even consider firing him. But according to a report from Dave McMenamin, that thinking has apparently changed.
Via ESPN:
“But for a second straight season, the Denver Nuggets’ way worked better, this time in the first round of the 2024 playoffs, putting Ham’s job very much in jeopardy, league sources told ESPN. The Lakers plan to conduct a post mortem on the season in the coming days before making a decision on Ham’s future, a team source told ESPN.”
The team’s poor start, as well as Ham’s continued tinkering with the starting lineup, started to darken his standing internally within the organization.
“The internal expectations to win the championship in June only heightened, while the fallout from shuffling his lineup — first benching [Austin] Reaves and later D’Angelo Russell, while sticking with Taurean Prince even after Jarred Vanderbilt had returned from a left heel injury that cost him the first 20 games of the season — hurt Ham’s reputation both inside and outside the organization, sources told ESPN.
“… Yet rather than the team’s resiliency being applauded as the prevailing sentiment surrounding the late-season success, multiple team sources told ESPN that the Lakers should have — or even would have — finished better than No. 7 in the West and avoided the play-in tournament had Ham settled on that starting lineup much sooner.
“‘The job of a coach is to make the best out of what you have,’ one team source told ESPN. ‘And he wasn’t doing that.'”
Of course, if Ham is indeed sent packing, the question would be who would replace him and whether that man would be a true upgrade.