Lakers

They were so impressed by Ham that they passed over a planned interview with Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson and offered the Bucks assistant the job. Former ...

They were so impressed by Ham that they passed over a planned interview with Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson and offered the Bucks assistant the job. Ham sold the Lakers’ brass with his ability to communicate and hold people accountable. Ham was granted some power before he accepted the job on a four-year contract.

What's your reaction to the Lakers hiring Darvin Ham? Howard Beck: By all accounts, Ham is an excellent coach—respected, knowledgeable, hard-working and a great ...

They really need to overhaul the entire roster after James and Davis, and that’s going to be a really steep task. Even if the trade makes no sense from a value standpoint, the Lakers need to better complement AD and LeBron. Westbrook doesn’t do that. Nadkarni: LA still needs to work the trade machine for Russell Westbrook. I see the growing chatter that he may play for the team next season. The Lakers need to add defenders. And the bigger issue with Russ is he’s not the player he used to be. Someone needs to disillusion the Lakers about Russell Westbrook; Ham may have to be that person. In addition, it’s a reminder for me that coaching was not necessarily the biggest issue for the Lakers last season. If he doesn’t earn their trust, the team can’t be put in the best position to succeed. By all accounts, Ham is a good hire and a rising star in the coaching ranks. The Lakers are reportedly hiring Darvin Ham to be their next coach. There has been plenty of buzz that the Lakers were sitting on a more established coach (Doc Rivers, Quin Snyder), and there’s risk to bringing a first-time head coach on board a team (theoretically) built to win a championship. He won a title as a player (in 2004 with the Pistons, beating the Lakers) and as an assistant coach (in 2021 with the Bucks). It's a bit surprising that Los Angeles went with someone who's never been a head coach in the NBA before, given the stakes and pressure that come with this particular job, but that doesn't mean Ham can't handle it.

Getting James on board is the most important piece of this challenging Lakers puzzle.

Optimism always abounds in the afterglow of a coaching hire. In the Lakers universe, James is the sun, and everyone else is just space flotsam. Vogel was the beneficiary of a botched coaching search. But the Lakers kept their coaching job open as a carrot to potential free agents in a star-laden class. He understands locker room dynamics with eight years in the NBA as a player. Sources said Ham has been assured he will have autonomy to hire his coaching staff. He was fired when the Lakers gave him a one-year contract extension last summer, months after leading the Lakers to their 17th championship under the most bizarre set of circumstances in league history. The Lakers won 27 games and Mike D’Antoni quit. He won a ring as Mike Budenholzer’s favorite assistant in Milwaukee. And when it comes to unifying a splintered locker room, league insiders believe he has the goods. Vogel was a fine coach. He comes with a big reputation as a communicator.

The Lakers can now trade Russell Westbrook with Darvin Ham hired as the new coach. And look for defenders. And shooters, ballhandlers and creators.

This kind of worst-case scenario isn’t what the Lakers and their fans are used to thinking about. Ham will be granted a significant degree of autonomy, with The Times’ Dan Woike and Broderick Turner reporting that he will be allowed to choose his coaching staff. Vogel won them a championship, but the amateurish search was indicative of problems in the organization. Whether Darvin Ham can coach in the NBA almost doesn’t matter at this point. The task could very well be impossible. They still wouldn’t be a playoff team.

Ham moved to the big seat on the Lakers bench from one of the last ones at Saginaw High (with NBA championships as a player and an assistant coach) as part of a ...

He put the time in on the practice floor and it was always a nice carryover in the game. He also is capable of communicating in a way where you can receive it the right way. “... Darvin was such a hard worker. “He was working hard, working all the players out, worked me out,” Sandiford-Artest said. Metta Sandiford-Artest — then known as Metta World Peace — was on that Lakers team and remembers tabbing Ham as a future coach. He remembered Ham as someone who would never “bulls— in practice” because he was too committed. Every time he got in the game, he just raised the level of play. “He brought the heat to practice every day. He’s a true competitor, has always been a competitor,” Thomas said. Hard-nosed, hard-working, but a great person.” “I’m sure if you talked to the guys that he played with, he was probably their favorite-teammate type dude. Hard-nosed, hard-working, but a great person.”

What Darvin Ham accomplished in the last month should not be short-changed: The 48-year-old parlayed more than a decade of NBA assistant experience to earn ...

Westbrook can also be more alert on defense: less prone to taking risks and more responsible within the team scheme. But given that Westbrook is so difficult to trade and that The Athletic reported that Westbrook’s role was a talking point in coaching interviews, it’s more than conceivable that the Lakers could have him on the team in the fall. It’s reasonable to expect both to be motivated on their own, but Ham and his staff must direct that motivation into getting the most out of both players. That went really well in Milwaukee, where Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday don’t seem to have ego-related disputes with their coaches (Antetokounmpo was another big supporter of Ham’s head coaching candidacy). But Ham has to figure out ways to use that respect to get more out of his stars. James wasted no time in giving a public endorsement of Ham, whom he played against early in his career when the coach was in a jersey. Ham has been on a handful of different teams that had different structures and schemes.

While the Darvin Ham move has drawn rave reviews, it's hard to say he was the Lakers' clear first choice for head coach.

The big names in coaching are obviously going to be locked up by other teams. Acquiring one willing to make a move to LA would require some additional compensation – something the Lakers sorely lack, and quite frankly would rather use to improve their roster around LeBron James. Snyder, sources said, wasn’t interested in a move to the Lakers. While Rivers seemed like a serious option for some Lakers decision makers, 76ers president Daryl Morey said Rivers would remain with the team after they were eliminated from the playoffs by Miami.

The Lakers wanted someone who had worked for the team, as Ham did as an assistant coach from 2011-13, who had won a title and who had experience coaching star ...

Pelton also expects Ham to try to change the way Westbrook is used, employing him as a screener more often than a spot-up shooter. - The organization’s poor treatment of Vogel may have discouraged a few coaches under contract who might otherwise have been interested in the job, such as Nick Nurse, Quin Snyder and Doc Rivers, Buha suggests in the same piece. Ham checked those boxes, along with being a former player, having a strong personality and working under respected coaches such as Gregg Popovich and Mike Budenholzer.

Milwaukee's superstar forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has spent the last five years coached by Darvin Ham, was as excited as anyone to see him land the ...

One of Ham’s biggest strengths as a coach is his ability to connect with superstars, and he’s coached some of the best during his time. Instead, it’ll be an earnest look at one of the biggest positives about the Lakers’ new head coach. And technically that could be an option as he could hit free agency in the 2025 offseason if he turns down his player option.

Utah Jazz head coach Quin Snyder reportedly "wasn't interested" in leading the Lakers prior to Los Angeles' hire of Darvin Ham.

During his eight seasons in Utah, Snyder has coached the Jazz to a 636-371 record, including 21-30 in the postseason. He is reportedly under contract with Utah for another season. Despite winning an NBA title in 2020, Vogel was only in Los Angeles for three seasons.

After the Lakers ended last season without going to the playoffs and disappointed fans everywhere, it was clear there would be some big changes happening.

This inevitably led to the Lakers interviewing Frank Vogel and hiring him as the head coach for LA. He also did not get a choice in his own assistants. However, the Lakers are making sure they offer Ham what he needs to be successful. After the Lakers ended last season without going to the playoffs and disappointed fans everywhere, it was clear there would be some big changes happening.