What Will Become of Darvin Ham After Lakers Dismissal?

The ex-Los Angeles head coach is a free agent.

Apr 14, 2024; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham slaps hands with center Anthony Davis. / Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports

After a relatively successful two-year run with the Los Angeles Lakers, the club's now-ex-head coach Darvin Ham once again finds himself a free agent.

There are two non-Lakers head coaching openings as of this writing, for the lottery-bound Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards. It's possible that another playoff team or two could fire their head coach before all is said and done, with another ex-Los Angeles head coach, the Phoenix Suns' Frank Vogel, looking the most vulnerable after his star-heavy squad suffered a four-game sweep against the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round.

Will Ham, who had been a career assistant at the NBA level before accepting the Lakers gig, want to return to the job right away? He has yet to be connected to the Hornets and Wizards jobs, although he did just receive the ax on Friday. He reportedly inked a four-year contract with Los Angeles, so he'll still be earning money even if he sits at home and/or occasionally dabbles in TV commentator appearances. Being the leader of the league's premiere team, especially as someone who pushed the club to a Western Conference Finals appearance and a solid 90-74 overall record, should give him enough cache to net some media appearances.

Ham previously served under longtime Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer, including during their run to the 2021 championship. Budneholzer has been floated as a candidate for the Lakers gig, so it seems unlikely Ham would enjoy returning as an assistant to the team that just let him go. Prior to that, Ham had worked under the Mike Brown and Mike D'Antoni Lakers regimes. Brown is currently the head coach for L.A.'s Pacific Division nemeses, the Sacramento Kings. That could be a good fit, should Ham want to take on a lead assistant-level gig that should be considerably lower-stakes.

During his L.A. tenure, he helped develop Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura to breakout seasons in 2022-23, helped stabilize erratic point guards Dennis Schröder and D'Angelo Russell, and maximized the defense of forward Jarred Vanderbilt. He's come under criticism for some rotational and ATO decisions, but ultimately, the failure of the Lakers to advance past the first round seems to be more an issue of roster construction than coaching. L.A. faced a buzzsaw of a Denver Nuggets club that was just younger, bigger and deeper. It feels unlikely that anyone not named Erik Spoelstra could have coached this particular L.A. roster's way out of that.

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