The Los Angeles Lakers decided to fire head coach Darvin Ham on Friday after two years at the helm. Many have criticized the move, including ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith.
Smith absolutely ripped apart the Lakers on Monday morning during First Take, saying Ham essentially didn’t deserve to be let go:
“He got screwed. It was the wrong decision. In two seasons, he went to the Western Conference Finals, he went to the playoffs twice, they were better this year than they were last year, they just ran into the reigning NBA champions and last year they ran into the best team in basketball and ended up being the champions. That’s the only team that’s knocked off the Lakers, is that the course for being fired? I don’t know what to say about that.
Listen, no coach is perfect, I’m sure folks can point to things he could’ve done differently schematically, with rotations, but look at the roster itself, it was problematic, you had shooters who couldn’t defend, defenders who couldn’t shoot, you’re Darvin Ham and you have to throw in certain guys for defensive purposes and then exchange them for guys with offensive prowess because that’s what you needed. Very few could do both outside of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, so these are the kind of things he had to deal with.”
Was Lakers’ early exit Darvin Ham’s fault?
First off, Los Angeles dismissed Ham in the most unprofessional way possible. It was revealed that GM Rob Pelinka called the coach to inform him of his firing instead of meeting face-to-face. Ruthless, to say the least.
As Stephen A. alluded to though, it’s unfair to put the blame on Ham for the Lakers’ first-round exit. I mean, he got them to the west finals a year ago and again, the Nuggets were the only team that proved to be their kryptonite. This is a group that struggled immensely to shoot the basketball all season long and wasn’t exactly stellar defensively, either. Ham did his best to use the players he had at his disposal.
A 90-74 record across two seasons didn’t exactly warrant being fired. There were a ton of roster changes and injuries, yet Ham kept them afloat. It also remains a serious challenge for anyone to stay LeBron James’ coach for very long, plus AD kind of threw Ham under the bus with some of his comments during the Nuggets’ series. That wasn’t a great look.
The Lakers are eyeing several candidates to replace Ham, including Mike Budenholzer and Ty Lue, but the latter is unlikely to leave his gig with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Despite being canned, there’s no question Darvin Ham will be getting an opportunity to coach elsewhere. After all, he truly did a nice job in his first time as an HC. That will not go unnoticed by other organizations with openings across the Association.
It will be interesting to see where Ham lands next. As for the Lakers, it’s time to search for another coach this offseason.
