With the team stuck in 10th place and only 18 games left in the season, the Los Angeles Lakers would be smart to fire second-year head coach Darvin Ham right now rather than waiting until this summer to make the change.
While the Lakers will probably wait until the offseason to make a head coaching change, there are compelling reasons why they would be better off making the change right now rather than waiting until this summer.
Firing Ham right now could save the Lakers’ season and their relationship with LeBron James plus give them a head start on securing a new coach, deciding whom to keep, and resetting the franchise’s goals and priorities.
Everybody knew the Lakers were essentially sacrificing this season for the future when they decided not to make any moves at the deadline, leaving coach Ham with a flawed roster lacking critical frontcourt size and depth.
But Ham’s inability to handle the simple basic head coach responsibilities like building smart lineups, making the right substitutions, calling critical timeouts, and managing game strategies and tactics has been glaring.
Frankly, it seems inevitable that Darvin Ham will be fired this summer. The front office has reportedly had to intervene several times to resolve team rotation and playing time issues between Ham and disgruntled players.
The Lakers need to do whatever they can to save this season. As long as LeBron James and Anthony Davis are healthy and thriving, the reality is the Lakers will always have a puncher’s chance to win the NBA championship.
Here are five reasons why the Lakers should fire Darvin Ham right now rather than waiting until next summer, when their attention should be on building their next championship team, not searching for a new coach.
1. Only Opportunity To Save Season
While changing coaches at this point would be dramatic, the only way the Los Angeles Lakers can save this season is by firing Darvin Ham right now and replacing him with Phil Handy as the team’s Interim Head Coach.
There’s no question that Darvin Ham has lost this team, that LeBron James and Anthony Davis no longer are listening to or respect him. Waiting until this summer to replace him will only create more confusion and disarray.
After Tuesday night’s collapse against the Kings, the Lakers now have only a remote chance of making the top-6 in the West and will end up as one of four teams forced to win the Play-In Tournament to make the playoffs.
Throwing away a season where LeBron James and Anthony Davis are both healthy and playing like superstars would be pure basketball malfeasance. The Lakers should fire Ham now and give Phil Handy a chance to shine.
There’s a better chance Phil Handy could get the team to play better and win the head coaching job for next season than Darvin Ham could survive the rest of the season and be confirmed as head coach next summer.
The Lakers have always believed that they have a chance to beat any team if they have a healthy and thriving LeBron James and Anthony Davis heading into the playoffs. They showed last year that the Play-In couldn’t stop them.
What the Lakers need right now is for the team to fire Darvin Ham and promote Phil Handy to Interim Head Coach. That’s the only front office move they can make at this point to possibly save the 2023–24 season.
It’s obvious right now this Lakers team is not going to make the playoffs with Darvin Ham as head coach. The only way the Lakers can save this season is to fire Darvin Ham and promote Phil Handy to Interim Coach.
2. Jump Start Finding New Coach
The last thing the Lakers want to be doing next summer is searching for a new head coach when their focus should be on trading for a third superstar to support LeBron and AD and replace James when he decides to retire.
Firing Darvin Ham now would jump start the Lakers search to find his replacement. Besides giving Phil Handy a chance to show what he could do as the head coach, firing Ham opens door for L.A. to start searching.
Unfortunately, the list of available head coach candidates is largely filled with the usual retread list of out-of-work head coaches that includes Mark Jackson, Mike Budenholzer, Kenny Atkinson, Terry Stotts, and Sam Cassell.
Other head coach candidates whom the Lakers might have interest include L.A. assistant coaches Phil Handy and Chris Jent as well as highly respected young coaches like the Kings’ Jordi Fernandez or the Bucks’ Charles Lee.
Phil Handy and Chris Jent both have strong relationships with LeBron James and either of them deserves to be given a trial opportunity to see if they could possibly fit as the long-term head coach of the Lakers.
The Lakers have never opted for what could be considered an open search for a head coach conducted by an elite professional executive search firm. Instead, Jeanie and Rob have always trusted their own private networks.
If the Lakers are likely to fire Darvin Ham this summer, doing it now could give them a valuable opportunity to see if Handy or Jent is up to the job and, if they’re not, they then get a head start on finding Jam’s replacement.
Should the Lakers no longer believe Darvin Ham is their coach of the future, firing him right now would be a smart move that would give them more time to to experiment and decide who will be their next coach.
3. Reevaluate Current Roster Needs
Another compelling reason why the Lakers need to fire Darvin Ham right now is he is simply in the way of finding out what they have in the current roster before they can finally decide what to do via trades this summer.
While the current scuttlebut is that the Lakers are going to try and pull off a blockbuster trade for a third max-salary superstar this summer, with Trae Young as the favored target, much still depends on the rest of the season.
Because of a plague of injuries and inept player evaluation and poor lineup construction by the coaching staff, the Lakers still are not sure what they have in D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, and the rest of their young roster.
Even if the Lakers’ chances of winning a championship are remote, the rest of the season is critical to determining whom the team wants to keep and whom they no longer want. Darvin may not be the best coach to do that.
Ham has essentially bungled the lineups and rotations to the point where everybody believes the front office was eventually forced to intervene and order him to start Russell and Hachimura instead of Prince and Reddish.
Replacing Ham with either Handy or Jent would be a simple transition that could not only help the team win more games but also give the front office and coaching staff a fresh new look at each of the players under contract.
Before the Lakers trade away assets like Russell, Reaves, Hachimura, Christie, and Vanderbilt for a max salary $45 million per year third star, their front office clearly needs to be find out what they actually have.
Over the remaining 18 games, the Lakers need to find out just how valuable are D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, Jarred Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura and whether they would be smarter to keep them or move them this summer.
4. Rebuild Relationship With LeBron
The single biggest reason why the Lakers should fire Darvin Ham now rather this summer is to jumpstart rebuilding the team’s relationship with superstar LeBron James, whose disdain for Ham has become public.
The front office declining to improve this roster at the trade deadline was the first insult to LeBron James. Forcing LeBron James to finish out this season playing for a coach whom he doesn’t like could be their second.
Everybody knows LeBron wants to stay with the Lakers but if this team misses the playoffs, James may ultimately decide to leave Los Angeles as a free agent rather than sign a new multiple year deal to retire as a Laker.
The reports of how LeBron ignores Ham during time outs and calls his own plays have been seen by everyone and Darvin’s bias for or against specific players and rotations was bearable when winning but not when losing.
Keeping Darvin Ham as head coach for the rest of the season may be the easy decision but the risk is LeBron James could become very weary of losing with the bad lineups and watching poor substitutions being made.
There is a negative dynamic at play with Darvin Ham and LeBron. Not only is not firing Ham now wasting one of few years left in LeBron James’ career as a Laker but it’s risking his ultimate personal loyalty to the franchise.
While the Lakers may not want to admit Darvin Ham was the wrong pick, the current discord between the coach, the players, and the fans is only going to get uglier. The Lakers and LeBron James do not need this.
The Lakers should fire Ham right now to prevent further damage to their relationship with LeBron James. Right now, it looks like James and Lakers are on course for new contract this summer. Don’t allow Ham to ruin that.
5. Reset Franchise Goals & Priorities
The final and most important reason the Lakers should fire Darvin Ham now rather than this summer is to have more time and opportunities to reset their franchise goals and priorities heading into a crucial offseason.
The other contributing factor that may be adversely affecting the morale and quality and consistency of the team’s play is the Lakers’ public plan to pull off a blockbuster trade this summer for a third max-salary superstar.
Make no mistake, to trade for a third superstar making $45 million per year, the Lakers would have to trade every player on their roster except for LeBron James and Anthony Davis and rely on minimum salary players
Unless Russell opts into his player option or agrees to a sign-and-trade, the only tradable contracts the Lakers will have this summer to match Trae Young’s $43 million would be Reaves, Hachimura, Vincent, and Vanderbilt.
Trading those four players for a third superstar like Trae Young would strip the Lakers of their depth and diversity and make them reliant on minimum salary players to fill out their starting lineup and regular season rotation.
There’s a strong argument that using their 3 first round picks and 4 pick swaps for a new starting stretch center and aggressive point-of-attack defender would be a smarter than going all-in again on a third superstar. There’s compelling evidence D’Angelo Russell has shown the Lakers he is the third star they need to complement LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The Lakers greatest priority should be to bring back D’Angelo Russell.
Firing Darvin Ham right now would give the Lakers valuable time and options to reset their franchise goals and priorities and make a smarter decision on how best to upgrade their roster to championship level.
