{"id":292900,"date":"2025-11-18T16:04:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/292900\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T16:04:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:04:13","slug":"maligned-ex-lakers-head-coach-linked-to-recent-nba-opening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/292900\/","title":{"rendered":"Maligned Ex-Lakers Head Coach Linked to Recent NBA Opening"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-1539054189.jpg\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"darvin ham\"   decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nba\/los-angeles-lakers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> caught some flak for their decision to fire head coach Darvin Ham before last season, but it was something fans were very happy with. With JJ Redick clearly being a good head coach, it\u2019s safe to say that the team is content with their decision.<\/p>\n<p>Ham has spent the last two seasons as an assistant with the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nba\/milwaukee-bucks\/\" title=\"Milwaukee Bucks\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"111293\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> and is still looking for another opportunity to be a head coach. That might be coming soon. The <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nba\/new-orleans-pelicans\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> decided to fire head coach Willie Green after a 2-11 start to the season.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/marcstein.substack.com\/p\/sunday-best-the-pelicans-mavericks?utm_campaign=email-post&amp;r=qtt3u&amp;utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">NBA insider Marc Stein<\/a>, Ham could be a target for the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nba\/new-orleans-pelicans\/\" title=\"Pelicans\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"111294\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pelicans<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBucks assistant coach Darvin Ham, I\u2019m told, is a name to watch in the Pelicans\u2019 search,\u201d Stein wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The Pelicans have talent, but they haven\u2019t been able to figure out their head coaching position. The team needs somebody to come in and bring consistency to the franchise. Considering Ham\u2019s struggles with the Lakers, he might not be the right guy to turn the team around.<\/p>\n<p>The Bucks have been disappointing this year, and Doc Rivers is on a very hot seat. There\u2019s a chance that Ham could be asked to replace Rivers at some point this season. That\u2019d be a better gig for him than the Pelicans.<\/p>\n<p>Lakers Exceeding Expectations This Season<\/p>\n<p>With <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/nba\/player\/lebron-james\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">LeBron James<\/a> ruled out for the beginning portion of the season, many expected the Lakers to get out to a rough start. Instead, they are 10-4, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6814323\/2025\/11\/17\/nba-power-rankings-pistons-thunder-lakers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">Law Murray of The Athletic<\/a> ranked them as the seventh-best team in the NBA in his recent power rankings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Los Angeles Lakers are 10-4, and they finished their road trip strong just as they say Aslan is on the move,\u201d Murray wrote. \u201cLeBron James has never had to debut after the start of his team\u2019s season, but not only will he do so at age 40, he will do so on a team that does not need to be saved. The timing is also interesting, as the Lakers play only the <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nba\/utah-jazz\/\" title=\"Utah Jazz\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"111292\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Utah Jazz<\/a> (twice) over nine days, enough time to have a James training camp.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are some concerns about reintegrating James into the lineup, but he\u2019s arguably the greatest basketball player ever, so it\u2019s most likely that it\u2019ll give the team a big boost.<\/p>\n<p>Redick Proving to Be Right Coach for Lakers<\/p>\n<p>There were some major question marks when the Lakers decided to hire Redick as their head coach. He had no <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/nba\/\" title=\"NBA\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"111295\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NBA<\/a> coaching experience, and he was being asked to lead the NBA\u2019s most popular and historic franchise.<\/p>\n<p>So far, it\u2019s looking like a stroke of genius by the Lakers. It\u2019s difficult to see Ham steering the Lakers to a 10-4 record without James, and Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves missing multiple games.<\/p>\n<p>The Lakers seemed ot have a lot of belief in Redick, as they gave him a contract extension after one season with the team. It remains to be seen if he\u2019ll have playoff success after last year\u2019s disappointment, but he clearly knows how to push the right buttons in the regular season.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/austincjboyd\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Austin Boyd<\/a> has covered the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Lakers for Heavy.com since 2019. A Los Angeles native now based in Las Vegas, his featured work at Heavy includes interviews with NFL stars Darren Waller and Joe Montana, and a behind-the-scenes look at &#8220;The Shop.&#8221;  <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/austincjboyd\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More about Austin Boyd<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham. The Los Angeles Lakers caught some flak for their&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-292900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}