1:17pm: Ham has officially been dismissed, the Lakers confirmed in a press release (Twitter link via Khobi Price of The Southern California News Group).
1:09pm: The Lakers are firing head coach Darvin Ham, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter links).
According to Wojnarowski, general manager Rob Pelinka recently broke the news to Ham over the phone.
Sources tell Shams Charania and Jovan Buha of The Athletic that L.A. will soon begin an “extensive search” for a new head coach, with former Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer, Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson, and former NBA player and current ESPN analyst J.J. Redick among the candidates.
Tyronn Lue is another name to watch, per Charania and Buha, though he is currently the Clippers‘ head coach. Lue has one year left on his contract, according to The Athletic.
Multiple reporters, including Marc Stein and ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, recently cited Redick as a candidate if Ham were to be fired. Redick co-hosts a podcast with Lakers superstar LeBron James. He’s also said to be a “serious candidate” for Charlotte’s head coaching position.
An eight-year NBA veteran as a player, Ham was a longtime assistant before getting his first head coaching job with the Lakers a couple years ago. He compiled a 90-74 regular season record (.549 win%) and a 9-12 playoff record (.429) in his two seasons at the helm. The team also won a play-in game in each of the past two seasons to advance as the No. 7 seed.
That postseason record is a little misleading, since L.A. made the Western Conference Finals last year before being swept by the Nuggets, who went on to win the championship. The Lakers lost to the Nuggets again in ’23/24, dropping their first-round series in five games.
“It’s been a hell of a two years … I’ll tell you that,” Ham said Monday after L.A. was eliminated, per McMenamin. “Sitting in this seat, it’s been a hell of a two years. A lot of good things that got done, but ultimately, you want to win that ultimate prize.”
Wojnarowski first reported that Ham would be on the hot seat if the Lakers were quickly dispatched by the Nuggets, with multiple subsequent reports indicating that the 50-year-old’s job was in “serious peril.” On Thursday, Buha stated on The Athletic’s NBA Show podcast that Ham would likely be fired by the end of the week and perhaps sooner (hat tip to RealGM).
Ham had two years remaining on his contract, which reportedly paid him $5MM annually. He has “a lot of supporters throughout the NBA,” tweets Steve Bulpett of Heavy.com.
A two-time Coach of the Year with Atlanta and Milwaukee, Budenholzer won a championship with the Bucks in 2021. He was dismissed last summer following a first-round playoff exit.
Atkinson is another former head coach, having previously worked for Brooklyn. He backed out of Charlotte’s coaching vacancy a couple years ago after being offered the job.
Stupid. Keep following LeBron’s orders and see where it gets you, Lakers fans. I can’t say this came from LeBron, of course, cuz who knows if he’s even gonna be there, but it stands to reason that LeBron would say something to the effect of “if he’s here, I’m not.” His disapproval of Ham seems to be there, so…
Are you under the impression that Ham was a good coach for that Lakers team?
Im under the impression no coach was gonna lead this team to a championship.
Few coaches could have taken them further than 1st round.
Lakers have a better GM than 76ers
76ers collected all 3 mentally soft stars on Game 6 last 3 years
Embiid
Maxey
Harden
What a collection?
Maxey is mentally soft?!
Did you watch the playoffs? Kid looked pretty good to me (coming from a Knicks fan).
I definitely thought he was a one trick pony (burst past defender for easy lay-up) but he showed an all-around game during the play-offs and was clutch when they needed him. Much respect for his game. I’d vote for Most Improved this season
@Habitual Truth Teller
With the matchup they had, that’s fair. But Ham cost them a fair number of games in the regular season with poor decision-making and substitutions. Would they have done better against the Clippers or Wolves? Probably, given that the Nuggets a horrible matchup both for them and everyone else.
@Habitual: A better coach definitely could have taken them to the second round because they would have had a better regular season record and would not have had to play the Nuggets in the first round. A team with Lebron and AD should have been higher than the play-in.
Ham was awful. Bad strategies both offensively and defensively, seemingly no idea how to use AD properly, poor adjustments, horrendous defense.
Yes, I’m under the impression that Darvin Ham did a good job for that team. He didn’t put the team together, but he took them as far, or farther, than any other coach would have.
Are you under the impression that JJ Redick will be better? And I like JJ!
Your impressions as an outside observer mean nothing compared to those who watched him coach game after game. From what I’ve read, a lot of Lakers fans were not happy with the job he did throughout the year, especially with his rotations. And that includes the filtering out of fans who are unreasonable and/or never satisfied with anything.
Fans always think they know better than every coach. But I haven’t actually seen a single concrete thing he did wrong other than vibes.
With the age and health and the fact that D’Angelo Russell is their 3rd best player, this was always destined to be a shaky team.
Not true. Like the community here, there are plenty of know-it-all types, but there are also plenty of folks who generally have pretty reasonable takes. Spend enough time reading and you quickly learn whose opinions you can generally disregard/take with a grain of salt and whose opinions tend to be spot on more often than not.
No one is suggesting another coach would have been a miracle worker with this team. But for the things that Ham did have under his control, his decision-making processes were questionable at best. Mitigating circumstances can only take you so far and shouldn’t be used as a catch-all excuse
Maybe give the benefit of the doubt to those Lakers fans who follow and watch every game. Not some basketball highlights or news about this Lakers team. That way you could tell how bad Ham makes in-game adjustments (or dont at all)..
LeBron doesn’t wield that kind of power, not anymore. Do you honestly think it was LeBron’s decision to let Alex Caruso walk just to save a few million in luxury tax? Do you think the Lakers would have three 1st round picks they can trade this summer.
“Keep following Lebron’s orders and see what it gets you.”
“I can’t say this came from Lebron.”
Well at the very least we can say those consecutive sentences don’t contradict each other.
Ham was one of the worst coaches in the leauge with rotations. He got to a WCF final last year then abandoned the lineup that did it causing us to tank our regular season record and line up with Denver again
JJ Redick? Was this Lebron x JJ Redick Podcast an informal job interview? :)
Zero experience = top 3 candidate
I thought the same thing, I hope they hire the guy with no coaching experience whatsoever, based on the fact that he has a podcast with LeBron. What can possibly go wrong?
So is he under consideration for the Charlotte job because of LeBron too?
I mean damn dude. I understand the not liking LeBron and I even more understand questioning JJ as a head coach (i think its a horrible idea), but JJs knowledge of the game and easy to digest explanations are whats getting him considerations (not to mention the 15 years he spent in the NBA having a skill set that is coveted in todays game – getting misused by coaches who don’t understand). The fairy tales people sell themselves amazes me constantly.
Can pelinka go with him?
Next year, whoever Lebron plays for, it’ll be his 9 coach ever (not including interim coaches).
2 with the cavs
1 with the heat
2 with the cavs
3 with the lakers
1 for Whoever coaches him next year.
I don’t know what to do with this information
Roll your eyes.
Nothing. The only firing you can look at kinda sideways is Vogel. Brown and Lue were fired when LeBron was already gone, Spo is Spo, and Ham and Blatt deserved their firings wholeheartedly for being bad at their jobs (Blatt couldn’t coach an NBA offense worth a damn and got carried by LeBron and Kyrie, and Ham has been awful his whole tenure). Paul Silas was personally fired by Dan Gilbert after he bought the Cavs because Gilbert disliked him.
In fairness, didn’t LeBron want Spo gone too?
Sort of. More that he wanted Pat Riley to be Head Coach instead of Spo (which makes sense; championship experience and a massive pedigree versus 2 years HC experience and no playoff success as a HC at the time), but Spo quickly earned his trust after they won together.
Since 2011, this will be the lakers 7th full time head coach. Insane!
I miss Phil.
If the suns fire Vogel, which job is more appealing? Lakers or suns?
Lakers
Suns are unlikely to make a good trade for Beal
Somehow agreeing with Sillibot, but yeah. The Lakers have picks and tradeable contracts. The Suns have… basically nothing.
Lakers job, by a wide margin. The Lakers aren’t a bad team. Like many teams, there is just a gap between them and Denver. With good coaching and a little luck, who knows…
The Suns… I couldn’t begin to tell you how someone fixes that.
Not a lot of people are gonna be able to stop ANT, let’s not give the suns too much credit lol
Lakers team salary in summer
$179 million
Should the Lakers give Prince $10 million a year?
How about Phil Jackson
LeBron is angling to become the first GM/coach/player in league history.
Lakers are going to garbage for years after LeBron leaves
He is none of that. Maybe a offensive stat padder. He complains when he needs help. He doesn’t make anyone better around him. He is nothing like Bill Russell. Stop giving him so much credit. Even Magic Johnson is better
Make Lebron the coach, he runs the show anyway.
You think he was not the coach last season?!
LeBron just needs a puppet to take falls for him
Make Bronny the coach, since the Lakers seem to be willing to go with a complete novice anyway. Then LeBaby can spank his HC right away whenever he feels like it.
How is their playoff record “misleading”? They won 9 games and lost 12 it’s pretty simple. Oh it doesn’t count because the nuggets destroyed them both series? The writers here have gotten so bad
It’s misleading because they have a 2-2 series record.
They’re 8-4 against non-Nuggets teams.
And 1-8 against all teams hence their playoff record is 9-12. You don’t get to pick and choose which teams your record counts against.
By that logic the Rockets when they had Harden should have been the champion every year because they beat everyone except the warriors
No one’s saying the Lakers should be the champions. Just that their 2-2 series playoff record looks a little better than their 9-12 playoff game record, and the former is all that really matters in the postseason.
Series doesn’t mean anything. The lakers are 9-12 in the playoffs it’s the simple it’s not misleading it’s they won 9 games and lost 12. Why are you trying to take things out of context?
Nothing greater for a Celtic fan to see the lakers have trouble. The last banner will be the bubble. Lebron is burnt toast .
Coaching is NOT the Lakers #1 problem and Darvin Ham’s replacement will have similar records.
Lakers are at best a play in team. At worse, not in the playoffs.
Me personally, and I am not a paid Front office guy, I would dump Bron, trade the Brow and start over. There are teams with many 1st who would trade for the Brow. But we all know this will never happen bc the Lakers are run by Lebron and his management team.
I thinks its pure delusion to think this version of the Lakers ever gets past the Nuggets, Wolves and Thunder. Not gonna happen.
Hey good news Lakers, Pat Beverly will be available for cheap.
LBJ is the strong man over there…
Is Lue really considering Lakers job? What a joke! How can you try to go from Clippers to Lakers? Where’s loyalty and dignity? Lue has good image among players but he stole the job twice from hc when he was assistant coach. He was also just lbj’s puppet in Cleveland and when he got his 5 yr contract after a yr, he quit on the team and still got paid. Now, he’s at it again trying to get another hefty payout from either Clippers/Lakers. He hasnt won anything in LA. He’s probably happy that Kawhi is hurt because he can use that as an excuse.
Loyalty? Uhh, you do realize that Lue started his career with, and won two rings with the Lakers, don’t you?
Nate McMillan. Just sayin’.
It just seems like black coaches are having a hard time dealing with black superstars. Ham, Griffin, McMillan, Vaughn, Mike Brown(before Sac), Lloyd Pierce, and on and on. Whats the problem? Is it knowledge? Communication? Respect? Hope everybody figure it out because a lot of these guys didnt get a fair shake. Griffin firing was a travesty.
The Griffin firing was idiotic. He needs to be offered a position this off-season.
The NBA has more black coaches than all the other leagues combined.
So more are going to get fired. Sure only 1 might advance due to Cavs vs Magic. Clippers are getting eliminated and I don’t know if Mazzulla is black.
anyone know how many coaches LeBron has gone through?
He wasnt that bad tbh didnt they make the wcf with him last season?
Rumor has it MKE may move on from Doc (and why not? Half a season is just such a long time..), time for Giannis to politely demand (by way of hinting he may want to retire, be traded, or whatever) they bring in Ham.
He had one of the worst benches in basketball.
This Lakers roster can’t win.
Ham’s firing Is an overreacting. He didn’t have a great season, but Lakers just didn’t have the pieces to beat the Nuggets. They did a better job this Time competing to them, but it didn’t seem like an actual threat to taking over the series.
I think Lebron might have a case as a top-2 player All time, and I really like him, he’s a guy to root for. Still plays incredibly. But un this era it’s just not enough with two great stars AND an average, at best, supporting cast.
The lack of KCP, Caruso, Howard, McGee, Morris, Danny Green, Rondo and Dudley, the bubble team, is not properly dimensionated. There Is a big difference in talent, experience, and production between supporting casts.
C’mon Lakers –> Ham got the team to win the “In-Season” tournament!!!!
Just make LeBron coach and GM because you know that he is the one running it anyway.
Laker fans will say they have a 2024 banner.
BronGM ……. strikes again……
LOL. Telegraphed and now completed. Not knowing the details of Ham’s coaching, and just basing it what he had to work with, and deal with, over his 2 seasons, and his record over that period, he did a Great Job. It’s irrelevant. The PTB in LAL land clearly didn’t know the those details of his coaching either or didn’t care much about them. He wasn’t fired for his coaching, but for a bad result (LAL lost in the first round), and its irrelevant that he neither caused it or had any power to prevent it. Congrats to Coach Ham! First time being pinched. Smile, and be a good Fall Guy. That next job will be here long before the payments from this past one run out.
Can’t FIRE the PLAYERS ……..
Lakers are done for next ten yrs ……
Finally some good news!
Good riddance to bad garbage!
They should get Terry Stotts.
JJ Reddick….oh dear. Any other Rich Paul/GM James guys infiltrating that ball club? Opt in bron and bye bye. Sign and trade and bye bye. Not a chance in hell I give this guy a no trade clause.
Some team is going to get themselves a good head coach. He will not be in the market long. He did best he could with a dysfunctional group.
Right, Mike Budenholzer is available so some team will get a good head coach. It won’t be Ham, though. He’s awful.
I think Brooklyn is a better match for Coach Bud’s talents & style, so I’d prefer to see him land there. But also, he seems like a nice guy and he deserves better than the LeBron Lakers circus.
I can’t wait when LeDrama retires. That would start a new and interesting NBA.
So doing some media stuff with LeBron now qualifies you to be a head coach in the NBA? Maybe they should hire Windhorst.
Bron just getting JJ and Rich paid. If lakers are that stupid, Reddick gets a contract he’s never seeing out. Give me my money, bye. Rob needs to grow a pair, Bron for Donovan Mitchell.