In a move that shouldn’t be considered a surprise, the Los Angeles Lakers have fired head coach Darvin Ham, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, along with a statement from the team:
Ham, who played in the NBA for nine seasons, coached the Lakers for two seasons in his first head-coaching role. The Lakers were 90-74 in 164 regular-season games under Ham, but the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets have proven to be their kryptonite. They beat Memphis and Golden State in six games each in last year’s playoffs, before getting swept by the Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals. Then, the Lakers lost in five games to the Nuggets in the first round of this postseason, sparking a change in the storied franchise. It wasn’t all bad for Ham and the Lakers, though, as they won the inaugural In-Season Tournament earlier this season. Still, the main goal is a championship ring and Ham couldn’t get this team there.
Now, the Lakers will turn to a search for their next head coach. Oddsmakers have current Lakers’ assistant head coach Phil Handy as the head coach, which makes sense. Handy worked with Lakers’ star LeBron James for years in Cleveland, and after a short stint in Toronto, Handy joined James in Los Angeles in 2019. Other potential candidates include former Michigan coach Juwan Howard (a member of the Fab Five), current Atlanta head coach Quin Snyder, and current Sacramento head coach Mike Brown, who coached James for five years in Cleveland. Another potential candidate is former NBA player J.J. Redick, who has a podcast with James where they discuss the Xs and Os of basketball.
James and fellow Lakers’ star Anthony Davis will surely be consulted on who the next head coach will be for the Lakers. James, in particular, will be interested as he has a $51.4 million player option. The Lakers have said they’d be willing to extend James, who will be 40 next season. They’ve even said they’d be interested in drafting James’ son, Bronny, to keep the elder James in Los Angeles. But either way, the offseason for the 18-time NBA champions has gotten off to a very exciting start.
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