The Los Angeles Lakers fired coach Darvin Ham on Friday after just two seasons in charge.
The Lakers announced on social media that they fired Ham four days after their season ended with a first-round playoff loss to Denver in five games.
Ham led Los Angeles to the Western Conference finals less than a year ago in his first season as an NBA head coach. He had replaced Frank Vogel, who was fired by the Lakers exactly 18 months after winning the franchise’s 17th championship in 2020.
With little time left to take advantage of the simultaneous presence of Anthony Davis and 39-year-old LeBron James – who has not yet decided whether he will return for his 22nd NBA season – the Lakers are once again resetting their coaching staff instead of blaming the general manager. Rob Pelinka for his roster building.
Ham presided over a disappointing year for the Lakers, who went 47-35 in the regular season and won the NBA’s first In-Season Tournament. The Lakers then defeated New Orleans in a play-in game to move up to the seventh seed in the highly competitive Western Conference – but that meant they had to face Denver, who swept them out of the playoffs last season.
Los Angeles led the defending champion Nuggets for long stretches of their first-round series, but Nikola Jokic and his teammates eventually rolled into the second round with a series of comeback victories.
The Lakers’ failure hurt because James and Davis were largely healthy all year, with both superstars playing more games than they had in an NBA season since 2017-18: 76 for Davis and 71 for James, the leading scorer in the history of the NBA. D’Angelo Russell also had a strong regular season, setting the franchise record for three-pointers.
That health and success only translated into a four-win improvement in the standings from last season, and Ham received much of the blame from fans and observers for his game management, slow tactical adjustments and a reluctance to change his player rotations and starting lineups change. even when things weren’t working.
The Lakers fell into a hole they couldn’t escape when they went 3-10 over the holiday season immediately following the In-Season Tournament finals. Ham was heavily criticized for his lineups and rotations during that poor stretch – among other decisions, he curiously benched Russell and Austin Reaves, while giving extended playing time to Taurean Prince and Cam Reddish.
That slump ultimately prevented the Lakers from achieving a top six finish in the West, even though they finished the regular season with an impressive 28-14 mark.
The players publicly supported Ham, but the signs of frustration were clear. After the Lakers blew a 20-point lead last month and lost to Denver in Game 2, Davis said the Lakers “have stretches on both ends of the floor where we don’t know what we’re doing,” a comment widely interpreted as a chance at Ham’s coaching competence.
The Lakers went just 43-39 in their first season under Ham in 2022-23, but they benefited from more favorable playoff games. After beating Minnesota in a play-in game, they won the playoff series against Memphis and Golden State to reach the conference finals, where they were swept by Denver.
James, Davis and the Lakers have failed to win a playoff round in three of their four seasons since winning the championship in the Florida bubble in 2020.
Ham had two years left on his contract with the Lakers, who will hire their fourth head coach since James arrived in 2018. The new coach will be the Lakers’ eighth in fourteen seasons since the departure of Hall of Famer Phil Jackson in 2011.
Ham had an eight-year playing career in the NBA as an athletic forward, winning a championship with Detroit in 2004. He got his first NBA assistant coaching job with the Lakers in 2011, and he was Mike Budenholzer’s assistant in Atlanta and Milwaukee for nine years. seasons – winning a second championship ring with the Bucks in 2021 – before returning to the Lakers as their head coach.
James has a $51.4 million player option for next season, and his decision depends on any offseason move for the Lakers, who internally expect him to return.
Pelinka must then determine whether he can make the long-awaited move to a third superstar through trades, or whether he believes the claims of Rui Hachimura and other key players that the Lakers can become a contender with more continuity.
Russell has an $18.7 million player option after the sharp-shooting guard excelled in the regular season and flopped in the playoffs, infamously going scoreless in the Lakers’ Game 3 loss to Denver. After Los Angeles was eliminated from the playoffs on Monday, the point guard said he “has a little bit of influence. I will try to take advantage of it.”