The Los Angeles Lakers are reportedly expected to fire coach Dervin Ham as soon as Thursday.
Jovan Buha of The Athletic said the Lakers' “plan” will be announced “probably by the end of this week.”
“The last thing I heard is that the plan is still moving forward from Durbin.” [Ham] “At some point, probably by the end of this week, probably as early as tomorrow, we'll start searching for a head coach,” Buha said. athletic nba show (around 15:35). “I've already started hearing your name from a lot of people.”
Ham compiled a 90-74 record in his two seasons as the Lakers' coach. If not for his surprising run to the Western Conference Finals, he could have been fired after the 2022-23 season.
Shams Charania, Buha, and Sam Amick reported that “frustration” grew in the Lakers' locker room with Ham's coaching decisions as the season progressed. Opposing players also sensed his frustration. Asked about the criticism after the Denver Nuggets eliminated the Lakers in the first round, Ham seemed to scoff at taking the blame, instead blaming injuries and player performance.
“It was very difficult,” Ham said, according to ESPN's Dave McMenamin. “All the guys that are in and out of action. I get criticized for not being able to rotate consistently when I'm not consistently healthy. What's frustrating to me is this I love my job and the pressure that comes with it, but I'm always able to stay calm in the midst of chaos… [But] Common sense tends not to apply, especially when talking about my work.
“It's amazing how people ignore the core of having consistency in your lineup. It's all predicated on health and performance. If you're coaching a team and your starting players If one person is doing something like 10 games in a row, you just say it.'' Bed, what are you going to do? ”
While injury can be a valid excuse in some cases, it's hard to imagine an argument in Hamm's favor. LeBron James played in a record 71 games in a Lakers uniform. Anthony Davis played in 76 games, the most in his career.
Rotation players Cam Reddish, Jared Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent missed the game due to injury, but that's far from enough of an excuse for James and Davis to make a team that gets eliminated in the first round.
It would be fairer to argue that Ham's underwhelming coaching performance wasted what could have been the last healthy year of the James-Davis tandem.
