{"id":76056,"date":"2024-05-03T14:42:11","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T18:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=76056"},"modified":"2024-05-03T18:35:12","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T22:35:12","slug":"lakers-fire-darvin-ham-after-two-years-at-the-helm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/03\/lakers-fire-darvin-ham-after-two-years-at-the-helm\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Fire Darvin Ham After Two Years at the Helm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After a rollercoaster of a season, Lakers fans got what they wanted: Darvin Ham has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/40076601\/lakers-fire-coach-darvin-ham-2-seasons-sources-say\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fired<\/a>. LA formally let go of the second-year coach Friday morning, days after their second straight postseason exit at the hands of the Denver Nuggets. It was their third coaching dismissal in six seasons.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Lakers Fire Darvin Ham After Two Years at the Helm<\/b><\/h2>\n<h3><b>Ham\u2019s Comments Prior to Ousting<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It appears fans\u2014and even some players\u2014knew this result was <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/30\/lakers-rumors-darvin-hams-future-after-teams-early-exit\/\" target=\"_self\">inevitable<\/a> after two years full of mismatched rotations, late-game mistakes, and confusing postgame quotes. As Ham told the media following the conclusion of the Lakers\u2019 season:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt\u2019s been a hell of a two years sitting in this seat, I\u2019ll tell you that. It\u2019s been a hell of a two years.\u201d &#8211; Darvin Ham<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Dave McMenamin (@mcten) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mcten\/status\/1785168541353988559?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 30, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In his time leading the Lakers, Ham compiled a 90-74 record in the regular season. He managed to make the Western Conference Finals in his first year after a midseason shift, but history couldn\u2019t repeat itself this time around. His overall playoff record was 9-12.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ham\u2019s decision-making\u2014or at times lack thereof\u2014arguably cost the Lakers one of the better seasons in the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">LeBron James<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211;<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/davisan02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anthony Davis<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> era. James made history by notching 40,000 career points, while Davis dominated on both ends and played the most games of his career (76). Ham also managed to improve his win total from last season, going from 43 to 47 amid all of the chaos.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the team\u2019s revolving door of injuries did not help the matter, Ham also did not help his case with several questionable actions, from deciding on a starting lineup when it was nearly too late to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/syndication.bleacherreport.com\/amp\/10119284-lakers-darvin-ham-alludes-to-starter-s--tting-the-bed-after-nba-playoff-exit.amp.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">openly criticizing his own players<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka released a statement following Ham\u2019s firing, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mcten\/status\/1786459399403487406\/photo\/1\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which reads in part<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe all want to thank Darvin for his dedication and positivity. While this was a difficult decision to make, it is the best course of action following a full review of the season. This organization will remain unwavering in its commitment to deliver championship-caliber basketball to Lakers fans around the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Later that afternoon, the Lakers dismissed the rest of Darvin Ham&#8217;s staff, including player development coach and fan favorite Phil Handy.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Sources: In addition to Darvin Ham, the Lakers have fired the entire assistant coaching staff, cleaning the slate for its next coach.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanWoikeSports\/status\/1786508010560655426?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 3, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><b>Potential Replacement Candidates<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just as much has been made over Ham\u2019s status with the organization, the same can be said when talking about his potential replacements.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The two names that have popped up the most in recent days are <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/10119464-lakers-rumors-exec-says-lebron-james-would-prefer-ty-lue-as-hc-thats-his-guy\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tyronn Lue<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/redicjj01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">J.J. Redick<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014the latter of whom is a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/bleacherreport.com\/articles\/10119609-how-jj-redick-could-actually-thrive-as-next-los-angeles-lakers-coach\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">novice to coaching<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> but recently wrapped up a 15-year career in the NBA. LA could also turn to more experienced head coaches and ditch the first-timer experiment all together.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regardless, the Lakers now have a fresh slate when it comes to coaching, and James and Davis will no doubt play a key role in deciding who will lead them and the rest of the team next season.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a rollercoaster of a season, Lakers fans got what they wanted: Darvin Ham has been fired. LA formally let go of the second-year coach Friday morning, days after their second straight postseason exit at the hands of the Denver Nuggets. It was their third coaching dismissal in six seasons. Lakers Fire Darvin Ham After [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4265,"featured_media":74360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,2,26,62],"tags":[240,3839,38],"class_list":["post-76056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-featured","category-lakers","category-nba","tag-anthony-davis","tag-darvin-ham","tag-lebron-james"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}