The Lakers have been out for 1 day, but they are still the most watched teams in the league, but the top teams in the West like the Nuggets, Timberwolves, and Thunder are not very popular. In fact, the Lakers' 1-4 loss to the Nuggets is an acceptable result, after all, the opponent is the defending champion, and there is a gap in strength between the two sides. The Lakers avoided being swept and also created a lot of trouble for the Nuggets, but if Lakers coach Ham had reacted faster, the Lakers might have won more than one game, and G2 and G5 had chances, but unfortunately they didn't take advantage of it. After the Lakers were eliminated, NBA reporter Shams reported that it is basically impossible for Ham to continue coaching the Lakers next season.
Ham signed a four-year contract with the Lakers in 2022, he replaced Vogel, in the past two years, Ham has led the team in the playoffs in fact, last season reached the Western Conference finals, and was finally swept by the Nuggets 0-4, and this year it stopped in the first round, or was eliminated by the Nuggets. After all, the Lakers are a play-in team, and it is understandable that it is difficult to achieve results in the playoffs, James is 39 years old, and if he is 10 years younger, the Lakers can definitely eliminate the Nuggets. But if the team misses the semifinals, someone must be in charge, and it can only be the head coach, so in the NBA league, the team coach is a relatively high-risk job, except for Popovich of the Spurs and Spo of the Heat, other teams often change coaches.
However, as soon as the Lakers were out, the interior was completely broken. Lakers coach Darvin Ham blasted the team's players for their poor performance, and it was clear that he was not ready to continue in the Lakers position, "If you're a coach, one of your starters, 10 games in a row, is extremely stretched, what do you do." The Lakers' usual starting lineup is Russell + Reaves + James + Hachimura + Brother Thick Eyebrows, and the player Ham criticized must be Russell, and the other 4 can play in the regular season and playoffs, only Russell is a ghost.
In fact, Russell performed well in the regular season, playing 76 games and having a relatively high attendance rate, averaging 18 points, 3.1 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game, and shooting more than 41% from three-point range. In the playoffs, Russell averaged 14.2 points, 2.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game in 5 games, shooting only 38.4% from the field and 31.8% from three-point range. Russell is not expected to stay with the team either, and the Lakers will find a way to send him away.
Judging from Ham's remarks, he is ready to leave class, and the Lakers are unlikely to let him stay on the team, and perhaps the next step is to bombard other core players or management. Interestingly, James' second son, Bryce, retweeted a video of Ham with his hands in his pockets on social media to mock the Lakers coach. This is enough to see that James's family and even Lao Zhan himself are very dissatisfied with Ham, and without the support of Emperor Zhan, it is only a matter of time before the Lakers announce their decision.