Lakers: Draymond Green Weighs In on Darvin Ham Hire

Warriors forward Draymond Green provides his thoughts on the Lakers hiring of Darvin Ham.

For the first time in a long time, the Lakers front office made a move that at least some LA fans seem to be happy with. The hiring of Darvin Ham is a departure from years of hiring head coaches from the "Lakers family" or established names. It's a roll of the dice, but at least for now, it appears to be a one of the more thought out transactions this front office has executed in recent years.

LeBron has voiced his support for the move and so has a player James knows all too well - Draymond Green. 

In a recent article by The LA Times' Dan Woike, Green, who like Ham is from Saginaw, Michigan, thinks the Lakers made the right choice for their current roster. 

“I think he’s going to bring a toughness, a blue-collar mentality just because that’s how he’s built. That’s how he’s raised. You have to be that way from Saginaw. I think it’ll be a different toughness that they haven’t seen. And he’s going to command and require a different respect level that they haven’t really have had. ... And I think that will bode well for that team.”

Green explained how Ham's determination to push himself to the NBA help inspire him to get the most out of his basketball talents. 

“Growing up, could see that, ‘that’s Darv, in the NBA’, and you want that. That’s your dream, too. And to see him come back and be able to touch him, to go to his camps. It was like, ‘Yo, I could possibly do that one day.’”

Ham has a tall task ahead of him. He needs to build relationships with a pair of superstars (LeBron and Anthony Davis), find a way to make a much maligned former superstar effective (Russell Westbrook), cobble together a cohesive rotation that will once again feature a slew of veteran minimum players, and all the while, develop younger talents like Austin Reaves and Wenyen Gabriel.

And contend for a championship along the way.

But if the Lakers did their homework (for once), Ham is the right Michigan man for the job,