Getty Lakers coach Darvin ham, who was fired last month.
Over the course of decades watching NBA coaches rise up the ranks from back-bencher to top assistant to burgeoning young head coach, there is an assessment that rings true of many very good assistant coaches: As head coaches, they are very good assistant coaches. Such was the case with recently fired Lakers coach Darvin Ham.
And despite the possibility of a year off and despite the massive disappointment he oversaw this season, Ham could get back to an NBA bench quickly. In fact, The Athletic reports, Ham already talked with the Lakers’ division rival Warriors as a candidate to join the staff of Steve Kerr.
The Warriors could lose assistant coach Kenny Atkinson, who is a candidate for the Cavaliers job.
Wrote The Athletic’s Anthony Slater: “The Warriors had some conversation with former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham in recent weeks, per league sources. That isn’t expected to materialize. But it is a signal of the Warriors’ desire to add a big-name assistant, and indications are they are in search of either a former head coach or former player to fill the role.”
Lakers Coaching Search Still in Limbo
As for the Lakers’ coaching search, things are currently in a holding pattern, with J.J. Redick still the clear favorite to walk from the television analyst’s chair straight into the most high-profile coaching job in the sport.
The Lakers have been patient in their search, interviewing a handful of candidates and not leaping at the prospect of hiring Redick, who is believed to have the backing of star forward LeBron James. The two started a podcast together—“Mind the Game”—in March, which the cynical among us took as a precursor to James pushing Redick as the Lakers’ next coach, even as Ham still held the job.
But even as the Lakers have kept up the pretense of a thorough coaching search, with former Hornets coach James Borrego the other top candidate, chatter has persisted that Redick might already be building a coaching staff.
Dan Woike of the L.A. Times said on the “Roggin and Rodney” show that he has heard the Lakers’ potential staff could include ex-Lakers point guard Rajon Rondo, as well as Borrego, former head coach Scott Brooks and former Laker Jared Dudley, now an assistant with Jason Kidd and the Mavericks.
Darvin Ham Once Criticized Steve Kerr
Ham went 90-74 in two seasons with the Lakers, taking the team from the play-in tournament to the Western Conference finals last season. The Lakers were 47-35 this season in a difficult conference, and were ultimately KO’d from the playoffs by the Nuggets in the first round, in a five-game series.
There may have been some awkwardness during his chat with the Warriors.
Remember, during the 2023 NBA playoff series between the Warriors and the Lakers, a series L.A. won in six games on the way to the Western Conference finals, coach Steve Kerr used the postgame interview podium several times to make public pleas to the NBA. He accused L.A. of getting away with rampant flopping during the series.
The Lakers, Kerr insisted, were flopping and, “being rewarded” for it.
A month later, appearing on the “#ThisLeague” podcast, Ham fired back at Kerr’s flopping comments. He indicated Kerr was, “playing chess, playing poker, whatever you want to call it, guys trying to give themselves any and every chance in every possible way to come out on top of a situation and be victorious.
“It’s lame as hell.”
Perhaps we know why Ham won’t be joining the Warriors, after all.