Former Lakers coach Darvin Ham did not have the cleanest run in his first head coaching gig. In fact, according to personnel around the league, there is a growing sentiment that the Lakers hated playing for Davin given the degree of silence that was shared after his firing.
"There wasn't one player on the team who posted any message on social media after Darvin was fired," an NBA source told Sam Amico. "That wasn't a coincidence."
Ham, 51, was hired as the replacement for Frank Vogel in 2022. Described as a well-respected players' coach, the thinking was that he could get through to the stars and implement a game plan that could maximize the strengths of the entire roster.
What followed was a disaster and people around the league have been led to believe that the Lakers lost respect for Ham before it was all said and done.
"Look, Darvin was a nice guy," said one league personnel, via Amico. "Players liked him as a person, easy to talk to. He's a former player and won a championship. Players respected him as a person. But that was the biggest issue. They respected him as a person, not as a coach. His schemes, rotations, and inability to take accountability for his mistakes rubbed guys the wrong way all year. They started tuning him out all the way in December."
Ham meant well with his position as coach, but it became apparent that he bit off more than he could chew. Prior to his role on the Lakers, Ham had no experience in a head coaching position and he came in having to learn on the fly.
Darvin did initially have some success trying to get the Lakers back to the top and he even led them on a campaign to the Western Conference Finals in 2023. But as the Lakers lost more games, his decisions were receiving increasing levels of scrutiny until the 2023-24 campaign when things finally reached their breaking point.
That season was a low point for Ham and leading up to their first-round defeat, the players were making their doubts known about his failed game plans. Anthony Davis publicly called out Ham in the series vs. the Nuggets and D'Angelo Russell had some negative things to say in this year's pre-season media press conference. Even Ham himself apologized to some of his own players for not properly fitting enough practice time.
Darvin Ham was seemingly never a good fit for the Lakers and he lost the players just a few months into the job. It's the reason why they decided to go in a new direction for their next hire, JJ Redick.
While Redick has no coaching experience, he's a former player and is very knowledgeable about the Xs and Os of the game. During his podcast with LeBron James, we saw his extensive knowledge on full display and intricate schemes that might make a real difference.
As the coach, the Lakers are hoping that Redick's smarts will make up for his lack of experience and that his star-studded cast of assistant coaches can fill in whatever gaps are missing. The important thing for the Lakers is that their players believe in coach Redick and so far he's got them all completely locked into the plan.
