Former Lakers head coach Darvin Ham spoke out about his time with his old team, arguing that he was treated unfairly for the amount of success he attained. 

Now an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks, Ham just earned his second in-season tournament title, having won the inaugural event with the Lakers last year. He believes that that achievement is one of many that went unappreciated by the front office in his two seasons with the team.

“To do as well as I did, I swear to God, anywhere else I’m probably looking at an extension with what I did,” Ham said in an interview with Andscape‘s Marc Spears. “I’m not talking about feelings. I’m talking actual facts. They go from not making it to the playoffs to the final four in the NBA, the conference finals. And then you win the in-season tournament, navigate through all the injuries and win both of your play-in games to get to the playoffs.”

In the 2022-23 season, his first as head coach, the Lakers made a surprise run in the NBA Playoffs, knocking off the Grizzlies and Warriors before getting swept by the Denver Nuggets. Denver went on to win the NBA Championship.

“People always talk about us losing to Denver, but they never talk about how we got to Denver,” Ham said. “We beat a kick-ass young squad in Memphis and we beat Golden State.”

The following year, as Ham said, the Lakers won the In-Season Tournament and qualified for the playoffs through the Play-In Tournament but lost to Denver again in the first round. It was the end of the road for Ham, who guided the team to the playoffs twice but often took criticism for poor decision-making and a struggle with excessive media attention. There were also claims that merely making the postseason should never have been the goal for a Los Angeles team led by future Hall-of-Famers LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

In any case, the Lakers wanted new leadership, and originally considered UConn coach Dan Hurley as Ham’s replacement before landing on retired NBA player and analyst J.J. Redick, who entered the 2024-25 season with no coaching experience. Through his first 26 games, Los Angeles is 10th in the Western Conference with a 14-12 record. The season’s far from over, but to this point, replacing Ham has done almost nothing to improve a talented but fundamentally undisciplined Lakers roster.

Analyst and former NBA player J.J. Redick will formally interview for the Los Angeles Lakers head coaching job this week, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Redick has been an unofficial candidate for the position for weeks but could reportedly move to the top of the candidates list with a strong performance.

Rumors around Redick died down somewhat last week when the Lakers turned their attention to UConn men’s basketball coach and reigning back-to-back national champion Dan Hurley. Despite offering him a $70 million deal, however, Hurley ultimately chose to stay with the Huskies. Redick is now squarely in the conversation once more.

Much of the early speculation involving Redick, who has never coached before, came as a result of his close relationship with Lakers star LeBron James. With Bronny James declaring for the draft, James has his own off-season decisions to make, but his analytical podcast with Redick has been immensely popular and many wanted to put the pair together in Los Angeles.

Despite frequently appearing on television, Redick has been quiet about the potential promotion, and it is unclear how far talks have progressed to this point. Wojnarowski is now reporting that the former NBA journeyman is a serious coaching candidate.

It’s hard to classify Redick as anything but a gamble for the Lakers. Though he may respected among NBA fans for his knowledge of the game, the fact remains that he has no coaching experience. In the past, coaches on James’ teams have sometimes been accused of taking a backseat to the veteran leader, but Redick would still be expected to lead the team in an unfamiliar role.

The Lakers are coming off an underwhelming season, in which they failed to successfully build around James and fellow star Anthony Davis. Los Angeles posed no challenge to the Nuggets in the postseason, losing in the first round in five games, and parted ways with former coach Darvin Ham at the end of the season.

The Los Angeles Lakers fired head coach Darvin Ham after the team was eliminated from the 2024 NBA Playoffs in a 106-108 Game 5 loss to the Denver Nuggets. Ham coached in L.A. for two seasons, leading the team to an overall record of 90-74 in the regular season and 9-12 in the playoffs. The Lakers did reach the Western Conference Finals as a seventh seed in the 2022-23 season but failed to make it out of the first round this year. In December, Ham also led Los Angeles in winning the first-ever NBA In-Season Tournament.

“We greatly appreciate Darvin Ham’s efforts on behalf of the Lakers and recognize the many accomplishments achieved over the past two seasons, including last year’s remarkable run to the Western Conference finals,” Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said in a statement. “We all want to thank Darvin for this 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. The organization will remain unwavering in its commitment to deliver championship-caliber basketball to Lakers fans around the world.”

The loss to the Nuggets comes particularly harsh for the Lakers, as they have fallen to Denver in the last two playoffs. L.A. only had one victory in nine total playoff games and only beat the Nuggets in only three of 10 regular season games since Ham arrived with the team.

In the most recent series, the Lakers fumbled four 20-point leads to the Nuggets, losing all of those games while being outscored by a total of 44 points in the second halves of each game. LeBron James averaged 27.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 8.8 assists, while Anthony Davis had 27.8 points, 15.6 rebounds and four assists a game. Still, it wasn’t enough to stop a comeback from Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and the Nuggets almost every game. James and Davis played their most total collective games since they joined powers in 2018, but it was only enough for a No. 7 seed and first-round loss. Murray also had two buzzer-beaters in the series as the Nuggets won in five games but with only a plus-11 scoring differential throughout the five games.

“It’s been a hell of a two years … I’ll tell you that,” Ham said after the Lakers were eliminated. “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.”

Ham arrived with the Lakers in 2022, replacing head coach Frank Vogel, who won a championship with the team in 2020. Since that championship-winning run, Los Angeles has a combined record of 165-153 in the regular season, only making it past the first round of the playoffs once. Besides James and Davis, the Lakers have had a rotating cast of supporting players, and their lack of bench chemistry and depth could also be a factor in their lack of success and coaching.

Despite new players coming in and out not producing the results they have wanted, Los Angeles is set to have one of the highest payrolls in the NBA next season. They will owe a combined $70 million to Rui Hachimura, D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, Jared Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent, and the combined $94 million James and Davis are set to make. All of those players except James and Russell are locked down for the next two seasons, but as seen in the past, the Lakers won’t be afraid to make moves in the offseason or through trades.

As the head coach for only two years, Ham never had more than an entire season with the same players. Once he did have a set roster, he led the Lakers to the fifth-best record in the league from February to the end of the regular season, but even that wasn’t enough to keep his job.

Now, the Lakers are looking for a new head coach. Mike Budenholzer, Tryonn Lue and even JJ Redick have all been rumored to be their potential targets. Whoever it will be, like any coach for the Lakers, expectations will be high. James’ future with the team is also in question, as he said in the final press conference that he had seriously thought about retirement but had also given credence to the idea of playing with his son, Bronny James. He only has one year left on his current contract.

A few hours after Ham’s termination was announced, the Lakers announced that they would fire their entire coaching staff, including assistant coach Phil Handy.

It’s taken 20 seasons, but it might be time to admit that LeBron James has found his footing in the NBA. In the midst of a playoff matchup with the Golden State Warriors, the Lakers star was named to the All-NBA Third Team Wednesday.

Since his third season in 2005, he has never missed out on the end-of-year honor and appeared on the First Team for 11 straight seasons between 2008 and 2018. At age 38, James joins Tim Duncan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the oldest players to ever be named to an all-league team.

James’ 2022-23 season does not necessarily match up to his performances of yesteryear, but with 28.9 points per game to go along with 8.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists, his performance for Los Angeles still eclipsed those of most players in the league. In fact, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham believes that James deserved more recognition for his season under the circumstances.

“Lakers head coach Darvin Ham says it’s ‘amazing’ that LeBron James made the all-NBA third team at 38 years old, and he should’ve been named to the first team for excelling at his age,” ESPN’s Marc J. Spears reported after the announcement.

Together with Anthony Davis, James led the Lakers to the playoffs despite a disastrous start to the season and helped spring an upset over the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round. The team now holds a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference Semifinals against the Warriors, a team James has had considerable history with.

James has had not had a storied rivalry with Golden State since joining the Lakers in the Western Conference, but as a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers, he met Steph Curry and company in countless big games. This playoff matchup has proven to be a highly effective reprise of previous classics and is doubtlessly James’ primary focus ahead of individual awards.