The Los Angeles Lakers‘ head coaching search is officially over as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Lakers are hiring Darvin Ham to replace Frank Vogel. This comes after weeks of conflicting reports and worries from Laker fans.
Ham has been a long-time assistant of Milwaukee Bucks head coach, Mike Budenholzer. Ham’s first coaching job in the league was as an assistant in Los Angeles before the joined the Atlanta Hawks’ coaching staff.
That is where his connection with Budenholzer was formed and when Budenholzer was hired by the Milwaukee Bucks be brought Ham along with him. This is Ham’s first head-coaching opportunity in the league and he gets his first shot with the most prestigious team in basketball.
The Los Angeles Lakers avoided disaster by hiring Darvin Ham.
Luckily, the Philadelphia 76ers decided not to fire Doc Rivers and that seemingly opened the door for the Lakers to hire Ham, which was the right move all along. All offseason we have been preaching that the Lakers need to do their homework and hire someone who can offer a fresh twist and change the culture of the team.
The last thing the Lakers needed to do was hire a retread head coach like Rivers or Terry Stotts that have bad playoff resumes. That was not going to change anything in Los Angeles and while Ham is not guaranteed to be a success, there is at least the potential of him being special.
It will be interesting to see who Ham hires to fill out the rest of his staff. Frank Vogel hiring Jason Kidd to be his assistant was a massive move that had a big role in the Lakers winning the NBA Championship. Ham may target someone with head coaching experience, or could bring in someone who LeBron James favors.
Perhaps someone like Jared Dudley could be brought in on an elevated role in Los Angeles. We know LeBron loves Dudley and that could be something to keep an eye on. Regardless, who Ham hires to help him on the staff is just as important as the Lakers hiring Ham.
This is a good start to the offseason for the front office, which has lost a lot of faith from the fans in recent months with the decisions that have been made. Hopefully, this is the first of many good decisions made by the Los Angeles Lakers.