Tag: Darvin Ham

Darvin Ham is ‘highly unlikely’ to return as head coach of the Lakers, per reports. Here is why.

Darvin Ham may have already coached his final game for the Los Angeles Lakers.

After two years with the organization, Darvin Ham may have already coached his final game for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Despite an improbable run to the Western Conference Finals in 2023 as well as a championship in the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament, the Lakers arguably underperformed relative to expectations during Ham’s time as head coach.

Already reportedly on the hot seat amid a disconnect earlier this season, a first-round exit makes his case to return even less compelling.

Following another elimination against the Denver Nuggets in a second straight postseason for Los Angeles, it seemed possible that Ham had already accepted his own fate with the franchise. He reflected on his experience with the team, calling it a “hell of a two years” as head coach.

Some of the initial reporting provided further context as to why Ham may already know he could be on the way out as the head coach.

For example, the players reportedly felt the coaching staff held an “absence of effective direction” and the team occasionally felt they won games on their own (via The Athletic)

“[By] the time the Lakers’ season ended in Game 5 against Denver on Monday night, when Jamal Murray’s second game-winner of the first-round series sent the Lakers home less than a year after the Nuggets swept them last May, there were strong signs within the organization that Ham would be deemed most responsible.”

Per the report, Ham’s status as head coach is in “serious peril” and it is “highly unlikely” that he will return to the organization next season.

Other criticism included his “fluctuating rotations, game plans and lack of adjustments” during the regular season and playoffs. While players reportedly had “tremendous respect” for Ham as a person, they felt they needed someone to actually coach them as well.

Another report from Dave McMenamin was just as damning for the coach. Ham’s job status was described as “very much in jeopardy” heading into the offseason (via ESPN):

“The internal expectations to win the championship in June only heightened, while the fallout from shuffling his lineup — first benching 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.”

His “lack of accountability” came into question, as did his inability to settle on a starting lineup.

With all that in mind, fans of the team can likely expect a new head coach next season. As for the rest of the roster, though, that is far more uncertain.

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Turning point in Lakers season revealed

Darvin Ham’s decision to bench two key members of the rotation during the regular-season played a role in his teams downfall.

The Los Angeles Lakers season has come to an end. The Denver Nuggets eliminated them in the opening round of the Western Conference playoffs. The Purple and Gold endured a disappointing season in which they struggled to find an identity on either end of the floor. And they found it difficult to build consistent habits that are required to be a contending team.

Part of the Lakers’ struggles were due to Ham’s inability to find a settled rotation. He consistently chopped and changed his lineups, combinations and substitution patterns. According to Shams Charania, Jovan Buha and Sam Amick of The Athletic, a major turning point in the team’s season was when Ham benched Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell midway through the season.

“The decision to bench both Reaves and Russell, the team’s consensus third- and fourth-best players, did not sit well with many within the organization and locker room, according to team and league sources,” They reported. “Ham’s decision was viewed as a panic move that backfired, a divergence from the team’s stated goals of developing reps and continuity with the core players and groups from last season. Instead, those lineups and groupings didn’t play as much as they could have, even as bench or closing lineups.”

Ham’s future with the Lakers will be a hot topic in the coming weeks. His questionable decision-making will undoubtedly be a factor in the front office’s decision-making process as will their plan for the coming season.

The Lakers front office has some tough conversations in the future. What to do regarding Ham’s position within the franchise will likely be at the top of the list. Either way, the Lakers have underperformed this season, and they will be expected to bounce back in a big way.

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Mike Malone shares thoughts on Darvin Ham

Mike Malone was full of praise for the job Darvin Ham and his coaching staff have done with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Mike Malone has guided his Denver Nuggets to a second straight playoff series win over the Los Angeles Lakers. In the last two postseasons, the Nuggets boast an 8-1 record over the Purple and Gold. Denver also won all three of its regular-season matchups against the Lakers this season.

Nevertheless, Malone believes the Lakers should retain Ham’s services beyond the current season. He noted how Ham has handled his tenure with class and poise under difficult circumstances. Malone’s comments come as Ham’s future with the franchise is under question following a disappointing year for the LeBron James-led team.

“I think Darvin Ham is a hell of a coach,” Malone said. “That’s not an easy job. I think Darvin does it with class. I think he and his staff deserve credit for that. He’s a good man, good coach, and I wish him all the best. Hopefully, he’ll be around there for a long time because he deserves to be. And credit to their team, they’re not an easy out. LeBron James is arguably the greatest player of all time. Anthony Davis is a Hall of Famer. They gave us all we could handle.”

The Lakers came into the season believing they could challenge for a championship. Some smart offseason additions bolstered the roster’s depth and were supposed to help the franchise build on their Western Conference Finals appearance from last season.

Rob Pelinka and the front office must return to the drawing board. They have some tough decisions to make. And they will be sweating on LeBron’s decision regarding his player option for next season. The Lakers are out of the playoffs, and right now, there are more questions than there are answers.

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Darvin Ham’s coaching job with Lakers is ‘very much in jeopardy’

With the Lakers’ season now over, there is reportedly a real possibility they fire head coach Darvin Ham.

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.

Darvin Ham reflects on two years of coaching the Lakers

Whether Darvin Ham has coached his last game for the Lakers, he sported a positive attitude after they were knocked out of the playoffs.

As most expected, the Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Denver Nuggets in five games in the first round of the NBA playoffs. While they played well in spurts, they did a very poor job of closing out games, especially in the third quarter, and now they face an offseason of uncertainty.

A good amount of that uncertainty involves the future of head coach Darvin Ham. He has been made into the scapegoat for all of the Lakers’ failures to perform up to their ability, and whether he keeps his job could be a major domino to fall as far as what else happens, personnel-wise.

After the end of Game 5 on Monday, Ham maintained the positive and grateful public attitude he has always sported.

Lakers fans will undoubtedly be waiting with bated breath to see what happens with him in the weeks and months to come.

An enraged LeBron James went ballistic on the Lakers bench for not challenging a questionable call

LeBron James was FURIOUS the Nuggets got away with this call.

The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Denver Nuggets (who had some weird pregame warmup slides issues) to avoid a first-round sweep on Saturday night, but it didn’t come without tension on the part of LeBron James.

Early in the fourth quarter, with the Lakers trying to hold off a Nuggets comeback, it sure seemed like Denver carelessly turned the ball over out of bounds. Except the officials initially ruled that James had grazed the ball, letting the Nuggets retain possession.

James proceeded to plead with Lakers head coach Darvin Ham and the rest of the Los Angeles coaches to challenge the call quickly. They didn’t, which enraged James, and Denver took advantage by laying the ball up right behind him. Oof:

This isn’t the first time Lakers players have seemingly had major issues with their coaches during this series. For example, Point guard D’Angelo Russell didn’t join the team huddle during a brutal Game 3 defeat. Whatever’s happening in Laker Land, it seems apparent there might be a significant disconnect between the players and coaches.

Darvin Ham says he’ll go with same starting lineup in Game 4

It looks like D’Angelo Russell will not be benched for Game 4 between the Lakers and Nuggets, despite his massive struggles.

If Los Angeles Lakers fans had their way, Game 4 of the team’s first-round playoff series versus the Denver Nuggets could be Darvin Ham’s final game as its head coach. There also is a growing desire for starting point guard D’Angelo Russell to be exiled out of the Southland.

After a very, very good first half in Game 2, Russell put up a bagel in Game 3. He missed all seven of his shot attempts and didn’t score. At one point in the game, he was booed by Lakers fans at Crypto.com Arena after he missed a wide-open 3-pointer.

Russell also played very poorly in last year’s Western Conference finals when L.A. was swept by the Nuggets. As a result, Ham benched him for Game 4.

But Ham said he will not do that this time around.

Via ESPN:

“I’m not changing my starting lineup,” Ham said Friday after L.A. had a film session in lieu of practice.

If there is one good quality Ham possesses, it is his tendency to publicly support his players and try to give an air of eternal optimism and a can-do attitude. He still sounded supportive of Russell despite his terrible Game 3 outing.

“You want to give your players a chance to make good for themselves,” Ham said. “There were questions about that after Game 1 and you saw what we did in Game 2. He got back in the gym, as he’s always done, and worked on his stuff. And he provided a great source of income in Game 2. Although we came up short, he was one of the reasons we were able to be in the game.”

Even if Russell goes into volcano mode in Game 4 on Saturday, there is a real chance it will be the last time he wears a Lakers uniform. He’s reportedly likely to decline the player option on his contract for next season, which would hurt L.A.’s ability to send him away in a trade to improve its roster.

A potential Darvin Ham replacement is off the board

Juwan Howard, a man the Lakers wanted to be their head coach two years ago, has been hired by the Nets as an assistant coach.

By now, most fans of the Los Angeles Lakers have turned against head coach Darvin Ham, and it seems as if his players may have turned against him in earnest as well.

There is no indication, at least not yet, that Ham is truly on the hot seat in a real sense, even though his team trails the Denver Nuggets 3-0 in its first-round playoff series. But if he is to be fired, the Lakers would need to conduct a thorough coaching search.

If LeBron James sticks around past this season, they will remain in win-now mode, which means hiring someone who can get the job done right away, even if it would mean hiring another first-time NBA head coach.

Some fans have tossed around Juwan Howard’s name as a decent choice to replace Ham. But Howard, who was recently fired after five seasons as the University of Michigan’s head coach — is heading to the Brooklyn Nets as an assistant coach.

The Lakers interviewed Howard two years ago after they fired Frank Vogel. General manager Rob Pelinka was teammates with Howard at Michigan during the early 1990s as part of the school’s famed Fab Five era.

Howard was reportedly L.A.’s first choice to be its next coach at that time, but he turned down its offer.

He will now be a member of new Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez’s staff. The Nets have a young team that includes Mikal Bridges, the wing acquired in last year’s Kevin Durant trade who has since emerged as a borderline star.

Darvin Ham on Lakers’ mood: They are ‘ready to make a change’

Lakers head coach Darvin Ham made a curious and possibly ominous statement about his team’s mood as it is on the verge of being swept.

If the Los Angeles Lakers were a hospital patient, they would be on life support, and doctors would be preparing the next of kin for the inevitability of death in the coming days.

For all intents and purposes, the 2023-24 Lakers are already dead, and their death began in earnest in the second half of Game 2 of their first-round playoff series versus the Denver Nuggets, long before Jamal Murray’s game-winning shot. They trail the series 3-0, and there is a better chance of another tropical storm hitting Southern California this summer than of L.A. coming back to make this series competitive.

While there is plenty of blame to go around, the lion’s share of the blame seems to be falling on the shoulders of head coach Darvin Ham. Following the team’s film session on Friday, he commented on the mood of his players, and he made a curious statement when he said they’re “ready to make a change.”

Yes, LeBron James didn’t take charge like a franchise player should when his team’s lead is disappearing. Yes, D’Angelo Russell had possibly the worst game of his life when he went scoreless in Game 3.

But this Lakers team appears to have no leadership or direction. They have built double-digit leads in each of the three games in this series, but when Denver has made runs to eat away at those leads, the Lakers have looked absolutely clueless on how they should’ve responded.

That falls on their head coach, even more so than on someone such as James. Now, all those reports that James and his teammates have been ignoring Ham and even wanted him replaced earlier this season are more telling than ever.

It’s clear what the Lakers are missing most

There seems to be one thing, or person, who is holding the Lakers back most.

Last spring, the Los Angeles Lakers’ fortunes were looking up. After making a couple of midseason moves to give themselves a coherent roster, they ended the regular season with a surge and went to the Western Conference finals.

Although they were swept there by the eventual NBA champion Denver Nuggets, there was a quiet optimism coming into this season that they could compete for the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

But now, they’re staring at an 3-0 series deficit to the Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs, and that optimism has been replaced with frustration and bewilderment.

Despite a very good roster and a 28-14 stretch to end the regular season, the Lakers have had numerous deficiencies. Among them have been defensive rebounding, turnovers and inconsistent effort against inferior teams.

But now that they’re on the verge of getting swept out of the playoffs, their biggest deficiency has become clear, and it may at least partly explain their other deficiencies.

It’s leadership.

The Lakers took a double-digit lead in each of the three games played in this series, only to lose them. Whenever the Nuggets started coming at them and started to erase their lead, they had no recourse.

When the Nuggets made defensive adjustments, such as putting Aaron Gordon on Anthony Davis to stymie their pick-and-roll attack, they had no recourse.

When they were outscored, 34-22, in the third quarter of Game 3 on Thursday and fell behind by as many as 12 points in the period, they had no recourse.

When they lost their lead in Game 2 but still had a great chance to win in crunch time, they didn’t know how to take control and close the job.

Every time Denver has mounted any type of challenge or put any pressure on the Lakers going back to last May, the Lakers have self-destructed before our eyes.

Some will likely blame LeBron James, and while he may deserve some blame for this, the man who deserves the most blame here is head coach Darvin Ham.

When L.A. hired him nearly two years ago, he was lauded for his leadership skills and strong voice. But that voice has lost its potency, and his players don’t seem to have trust in or respect for him, according to at least one report this season.

Where was he with strategic adjustments or with the right type of emotional leadership when his team needed those things in this series?

The Nuggets are the world champions and will likely repeat as world champions because they’re well-coached and united. Championships aren’t won so much with superior talent as they’re won with brilliant leadership, togetherness and a belief in each other.

To overcome challenges, leadership, astute planning and proper execution are needed. The Nuggets have all that, but the Lakers lack those qualities.

The Lakers used to have all that back in the 1980s and 2000s when Pat Riley and Phil Jackson, respectively, coached them to many rings. They still had a bit of that in 2020 under head coach Frank Vogel when they won their most recent championship.

It’s looking like if they want to recapture their old glory, they will have to bite the bullet and make some significant changes this offseason. Those changes will have to start with a head coaching change.

But it remains to be seen if owner Jeanie Buss will go there. She is reportedly a “fan” of Ham, and she would have to continue to pay him if he’s fired while also paying the salary of his successor.