Lakers News: Darvin Ham Continues to Downplay LA Trade Rumors

The Lakers trade rumors continue to pile up as the off-season continues to ramp up, but head coach Darvin Ham won't add to the hype

Newly hired head coach Darvin Ham is ready to take the helm for the Lakers amidst countless trade rumors that have been circling over the past weeks. Ham seems ready to coach whoever will be on the team, but won't shift his focus to players who currently aren't on the team.

“We love everyone on our roster. And until you’re not on our roster, you’re ours and we’re going to try to get better with the group that we have. That’s just the bottom line of it." - Darvin Ham, Lakers head coach 

Ham, who played a respectable career winning an NBA championship in 2004 with the Detroit Pistons, enters his second coaching stint with the Lakers. Ham was an assistant coach under Mike Brown in 2011 where he helped coached the likes of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard. 

Ham now enters his first season as a head coach after winning an NBA championship as an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021. He will now look to turn a Laker season around that ended up being one of the most disappointing seasons in recent memory.

Darvin Ham: “I’m excited as hell to have Russell Westbrook on our team.”

(via @NBATV)pic.twitter.com/0Vdjec9OBk

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 11, 2022

As trade rumors continue to circulate, Ham knows the business inside and out and won't let any distractions come in the way of their ultimate goal for the season. 

“I don’t know a player that’s come through this league in my 26 years that hasn’t had their name part of a trade rumor a time or two. But, it is what it is. It’s the nature of the beast of our business. And so, again, the guys we have on our roster I'm very thankful for, I'm proud of and we want to maximize everything they can do to help us get to that ultimate goal." - Darvin Ham  

Ham continues to say all the right things.