Lakers News: Darvin Ham's Staff Likely to Include a Former NBA Head Coach

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reports that Darvin Ham's staff will probably include a former head coach.

The Lakers have their head coach now, but the job is far from done when it comes to who will be, or won't be, included on Darvin Ham's staff. Ham is a rookie head coach and could probably benefit from having a former head coach on his staff to help him navigate at least his first year at the helm.

According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, that is all part of the plan for Ham and the Lakers. 

"Ham made a strong impression on Lakers in several areas, including his championship pedigree, his commanding presence, history of coaching stars and toughness. Ham will start assembling a staff expected to include head coaching experience."

Over the last few years, the Lakers front office has had a heavy-hand in selecting the team's coaching staff. The organization famously failed to hire Tyron Lue in 2019 and one of the big reasons, besides low-balling him with a three-year contract, was not allowing him to pick his own staff. 

Once the team hired Frank Vogel, they placed Jason Kidd and Lionel Hollins on his staff. The approach worked, until it didn't. 

It appears that the Lakers might have learned from those mistakes. The Athletic's Bill Oram reported that Ham will be selecting his own assistants. 

"Sources said Ham has been assured he will have autonomy to hire his coaching staff."

Ham beat out former Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson and former Blazers head coach Terry Stotts for the job, but it's not completely out of the question that either Atkinson or Stotts could serve as Ham's top assistant. 

Atkinson is reportedly a finalist for the Charlotte Hornets head coaching job, but the offensively-minded Stotts could be a nice compliment to Ham.

Honestly, the bigger question is whether the Lakers are willing to cough up the cash to land a former head coach.