Darvin Hams future as a Lakers head coach is in serious peril.

[Kingdibs19]

He should be fired for the fact that he saves all his challenges and take them home with him. Dude thinks they’re Pokémon.

[Tony15]

No coach is safe today. They're the meat shield, the first line of defense when ish hits the fan. Whether its the coaches fault or not, they're gonna blame him.

Easiest piece to replace....much tougher to trade players for equal value.

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[SK21209]

Serious question.

Why did they fire Frank Vogel in the first place?

They won a bubble championship with him and Lakers fans will argue it was legitimate.. OK.
They lose in 20-21 to a very good Suns team in the first round after some extremely questionable roster decisions.
They then fire him after a season where Lebron plays 50 games and AD plays 40..

Whats the point of firing Vogel if you have championship aspirations and Darvin Ham is seriously the best you can do as a replacement? Guy was a lifelong assistant with no prior head coaching experience ready to pretend he knows what hes doing in the playoffs? Why?

Yeah, Vogel isnt a great coach... but you fired him for a nobody after he won you a championship?

He lost control of that team, they stopped listening to him and he basically stopped trying. Trading for Westbrook was one of the dumbest trades of recent memory so hard to fully blame him. Thinking about that deal and the Beal trade, poor guy was on the receiving end of some really bad decisions by management.

Yeah, a few things can be true at the same time. The front office treated Vogel like a lame duck in 2022 by making him coach out his deal. He was given not only an awful roster after the Russ trade, but also one that just does not work with how Vogel likes to coach defense. But even despite the circumstances, Vogel did a bad job in 2022. He started a completely washed DeAndre Jordan next to Russ, LeBron, and AD on opening night in the year 2021. He tried to turn THT into a 3&D wing. He kept Austin on the fringes of the rotation when he was pretty clearly the 3rd best guard on the team from the jump. If LeBron, AD and Russ could ever have worked, it required creative thinking/scheming offensively and Vogel just isn't capable of that.

Vogel never made sense with Phoenix's roster construction either, and he frankly did a pretty good job getting them to defend as well as they did in the regular season. He should go to a young, athletic team that needs to build a defensive foundation.

[Bornstellar]

"If you're coaching a team and one of your starters is like 10 games in a row, just s---ting the bed, what are you going to do?"


Damn, he doesn't even care anymore

[MagicMatic]

Serious question.

Why did they fire Frank Vogel in the first place?

They won a bubble championship with him and Lakers fans will argue it was legitimate.. OK.
They lose in 20-21 to a very good Suns team in the first round after some extremely questionable roster decisions.
They then fire him after a season where Lebron plays 50 games and AD plays 40..

Whats the point of firing Vogel if you have championship aspirations and Darvin Ham is seriously the best you can do as a replacement? Guy was a lifelong assistant with no prior head coaching experience ready to pretend he knows what hes doing in the playoffs? Why?

Yeah, Vogel isnt a great coach... but you fired him for a nobody after he won you a championship?

He lost control of that team, they stopped listening to him and he basically stopped trying. Trading for Westbrook was one of the dumbest trades of recent memory so hard to fully blame him. Thinking about that deal and the Beal trade, poor guy was on the receiving end of some really bad decisions by management.

Yeah, a few things can be true at the same time. The front office treated Vogel like a lame duck in 2022 by making him coach out his deal. He was given not only an awful roster after the Russ trade, but also one that just does not work with how Vogel likes to coach defense. But even despite the circumstances, Vogel did a bad job in 2022. He started a completely washed DeAndre Jordan next to Russ, LeBron, and AD on opening night in the year 2021. He tried to turn THT into a 3&D wing. He kept Austin on the fringes of the rotation when he was pretty clearly the 3rd best guard on the team from the jump. If LeBron, AD and Russ could ever have worked, it required creative thinking/scheming offensively and Vogel just isn't capable of that.

Vogel never made sense with Phoenix's roster construction either, and he frankly did a pretty good job getting them to defend as well as they did in the regular season. He should go to a young, athletic team that needs to build a defensive foundation.

Just seems like a weird decision when he just helped you win a championship 2 years ago. It doesn't help that the roster was borderline insane with multiple guys injured throughout that season.

I would understand hiring Nurse, Bud, Doc, type of coach... but Ham? Makes no sense with championship aspirations in a short timeframe. Just another coach taking the fall for front office and superstar shortcomings. They didnt even have a real coach to replace him.

[SK21209]

He lost control of that team, they stopped listening to him and he basically stopped trying. Trading for Westbrook was one of the dumbest trades of recent memory so hard to fully blame him. Thinking about that deal and the Beal trade, poor guy was on the receiving end of some really bad decisions by management.

Yeah, a few things can be true at the same time. The front office treated Vogel like a lame duck in 2022 by making him coach out his deal. He was given not only an awful roster after the Russ trade, but also one that just does not work with how Vogel likes to coach defense. But even despite the circumstances, Vogel did a bad job in 2022. He started a completely washed DeAndre Jordan next to Russ, LeBron, and AD on opening night in the year 2021. He tried to turn THT into a 3&D wing. He kept Austin on the fringes of the rotation when he was pretty clearly the 3rd best guard on the team from the jump. If LeBron, AD and Russ could ever have worked, it required creative thinking/scheming offensively and Vogel just isn't capable of that.

Vogel never made sense with Phoenix's roster construction either, and he frankly did a pretty good job getting them to defend as well as they did in the regular season. He should go to a young, athletic team that needs to build a defensive foundation.

Just seems like a weird decision when he just helped you win a championship 2 years ago. It doesn't help that the roster was borderline insane with multiple guys injured throughout that season.

I would understand hiring Nurse, Bud, Doc, type of coach... but Ham? Makes no sense with championship aspirations in a short timeframe. Just another coach taking the fall for front office and superstar shortcomings. They didnt even have a real coach to replace him.

The front office treated him horribly, but I kind of get moving on to Vogel. From the moment LeBron came to LA they wanted three stars. They went after Kawhi and Butler in the summer of 2019, obviously traded for Westbrook, wanted Kyrie and may want Trae Young now. When Kawhi spurned them in 2019 they pivoted and signed a bunch of defensive-minded role players and leaned into their size and physicality. That kind of team is perfect for Vogel. But they clearly did that as a Plan B and wanted to become a more offense-oriented 3-star team, and Vogel is not the right coach for that model. I think pivoting to that model was/is wrong, but if that's what you're going to do I agree with moving on from Vogel.

At the time, Ham was pretty well regarded as an assistant for Bud. The thought was he'd value size defensively like the Bucks did but be more creative offensively, but turns out his inclination is to play smaller.

[SerialChiller]

Everyone is saying JJ Redick

Would be pretty funny for Lebron to be doing a podcast with his head coach.

[Quattro]

How come Pelinka never needs to take accountability for anything? At a minimum, he keeps hiring apparently terrible coaches.

[Zeno]

Has there ever been a coach that a story like this came out about that kept their job? This taking a few days to evaluate stuff is complete bull. ‘Darvin we started this review completely convinced that you were clueless but after a comprehensive review we realize you actually did a great job.

[sp6r=underrated]

The front office treated him horribly, but I kind of get moving on to Vogel. From the moment LeBron came to LA they wanted three stars. They went after Kawhi and Butler in the summer of 2019, obviously traded for Westbrook, wanted Kyrie and may want Trae Young now. When Kawhi spurned them in 2019 they pivoted and signed a bunch of defensive-minded role players and leaned into their size and physicality. That kind of team is perfect for Vogel. But they clearly did that as a Plan B and wanted to become a more offense-oriented 3-star team, and Vogel is not the right coach for that model. I think pivoting to that model was/is wrong, but if that's what you're going to do I agree with moving on from Vogel.

Good Post. The Lakers proceeded rationally from a faulty premise. The faulty premise was that a 3 star team was worth gutting your roster to get. A majority of NBA championship teams this century have not had 3 stars. And the ones that have had 3 stars, have a 3rd star who is very borderline. The Curry-Durant-Dray nucleus was always an anomaly. My guess is LA favoring that model was over-determined. Lebron is a clear believer in it. I strongly suspect the Busses want stars for marketing purposes. And that made it impossible for basketball heads to avoid pursuing.

But if you're pursuing that model Vogel is not the proper coach. You need a sophisticated coach skilled at maximizing offensive talent. And that isn't Vogel.

[dockingsched]

This is only the second time in my life I’ve blamed the coach for total incompetence. Too often they get the blame when it’s players who don’t buy in, aren’t willing to sacrifice, or aren’t putting in the effort.

Just like Byron Scott, Ham has to absolutely be fired.

[K9J]

Serious question.

Why did they fire Frank Vogel in the first place?

They won a bubble championship with him and Lakers fans will argue it was legitimate.. OK.
They lose in 20-21 to a very good Suns team in the first round after some extremely questionable roster decisions.
They then fire him after a season where Lebron plays 50 games and AD plays 40..

Whats the point of firing Vogel if you have championship aspirations and Darvin Ham is seriously the best you can do as a replacement? Guy was a lifelong assistant with no prior head coaching experience ready to pretend he knows what hes doing in the playoffs? Why?

Yeah, Vogel isnt a great coach... but you fired him for a nobody after he won you a championship?

The Lakers' roster management and rotations that season were a disgrace. And it was a vogel fault. Lebron & Davis injuries didnt help but
How is possible that in 2021-2022 a nba team start with westbrook-bazemore-lebron-davis-deandre jordan it was eye-watering with 4 brick shooters, and when the starting lineup get killed in first minutes then vogel repeat it in third quarter...and it happen later with horton tucker over bazemore, with howard over deandre, then when davis get hurt lakers start to play with lebron at five with westbrook-bradley-monk-stanleyjohnson-lebron...it work four games and after 2 loss howard get back to the SL..the season was hilarous and a completely shame. then monk as starter, ariza, then in march lebron start at center again, 2 games later started with lebron-wenyell gabriel and howard....
Maybe a record of different starting lineup

[dockingsched]

How come Pelinka never needs to take accountability for anything? At a minimum, he keeps hiring apparently terrible coaches.

Can’t blame Pelinka for not being able to get coaches the Buss’ aren’t willing to pay. Lue would’ve been the Lakers coach and had the job but the ownership didn’t meet his contract demands that the clippers easily gave him.

Underreported issue for years is that the Lakers don’t spend much outside player salary, symptom of a family run business whose only income is the lakers themselves.

[AleksandarN]

The sky is blue. Lebron throws another coach under the bus. Shocker.

[sp6r=underrated]

How come Pelinka never needs to take accountability for anything? At a minimum, he keeps hiring apparently terrible coaches.

Can’t blame Pelinka for not being able to get coaches the Buss’ aren’t willing to pay. Lue would’ve been the Lakers coach and had the job but the ownership didn’t meet his contract demands that the clippers easily gave him.

Underreported issue for years is that the Lakers don’t spend much outside player salary, symptom of a family run business whose only income is the lakers themselves.

It would be interesting to see the impact on the LA' Lakers fanbase if the Clippers breakthrough were to breakthrough and win a title. For the last 15 years the Clips have been fielding solid teams that go nowhere. I'd be interested in seeing if the Lakers would lose some fans if one of these cores were to breakthrough and titles.

The Clippers have much deeper pockets.

[Quattro]

Deleted - double post

[dockingsched]

How come Pelinka never needs to take accountability for anything? At a minimum, he keeps hiring apparently terrible coaches.

To respond differently to this double post, lakers have hired two head coaches under Pelinka, Vogel that led them to a title, and Ham. “Keeps hiring”?

[Quattro]

How come Pelinka never needs to take accountability for anything? At a minimum, he keeps hiring apparently terrible coaches.

To respond differently to this double post, lakers have hired two head coaches under Pelinka, Vogel that led them to a title, and Ham. “Keeps hiring”?

Apologies for the double post. My point was more towards roster construction than his coaching hires. It's easy to keep blaming coaches for the Lakers failures but nobody realistically thought they were title contenders going into the playoffs.

[Edrees]

He should already be fired by now. It would feel almost as good as beating Denver.

[sikma42]

Again, I think he coached a good series and find this criticism kind of absurd. The gameplan was good every night, the adjustments were fine and the biggest issue with the Lakers were the front offices moves that went away from having a competent backup center. Really think Ham is a pretty good coach and JJ Reddick will be worse. I’ll save this post if it happens.


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