The Lakers fired Davin Ham after two seasons for countless reasons, but there were only two main reasons.
The Los Angeles Lakers have fired Davin Ham after two seasons, according to Shams, a news that was first reported by ESPN's Woj.
This is good news for the Lakers!
The 50-year-old signed a four-year contract in May 2022 for about $5 million per year. Unless he gets a job elsewhere, the Lakers will have to pay the money.
The current Lakers head coach played in the NBA for nine years (1996-05) and was a key substitute for the Detroit Pistons' championship in 2003-04, having paid the price during his time in the Development League, having served as a highly respected assistant coach with the Lakers, Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks.
The Lakers believe that Ham's influence, former player's perspective and relationship-building skills will connect with the likes of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Ham has impressed the Lakers' top brass with his technical and tactical abilities.
Last season, Ham was praised for his adept handling of Russell Westbrook's situation and turned a 2-10 start into a seat in the Western Conference Finals, thanks to a mid-season roster reshuffle.
So, what went wrong?
The Lakers decided to part ways with Davin Ham, and the time to come is still here.
The Lakers have been emphasizing continuity in the offseason/preseason, but Ham immediately changed everything. From the opener, he wasted time using Cam Reddish as a fourth guard instead of developing Max Christie — the type of energetic winger who can do both ends exactly what the Lakers lacked.
When the Lakers went 3-5, Ham tweaked Austin Reaves — the player who had a stellar playoff run to sign a $54 million contract and became the world's most watched player — as the sixth man.
The strategy was initially successful, with Reeves taking advantage of the best opportunities. The third-year guard averaged 14.4 points, 5.9 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game, while Los Angeles won six of the next seven games.
However, by late December, Reeves was still a substitute, not Reddish (and Taurien Prince). It wasn't until January 3 that he returned to the starting line-up.
Ham reportedly confused the players as he adjusted the roles of Angelo Russell and Hachimura, while the team performed correspondingly poorly (excluding mid-season tournament matches).
This speaks volumes about how poor Ham's coaching skills are, with Hachimura signing a three-year, $51 million contract with the Lakers after a strong performance in the 2023 playoffs, but as of Feb. 1, he has only started seven games, despite an injury to Jarred Vanderbilt.
Russell's performance slipped after the midseason, averaging 9.8 points per game on 37.5 percent shooting in the first eight games of December, and Ham moved the former All-Star to the bench (as he did in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals).
Against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Dec. 23, Ham started Reddish, Prince and Vanderbilt alongside James and Davis. The Lakers won the game, but Ham could start to lose support in the locker room. The Lakers lost four of the next five games.
From Nov. 30 to Feb. 1, the Lakers had a 14-17 record, dropping to No. 13 in the West. On Jan. 3, Reeves said the atmosphere was "terrible."
The Lakers did suffer significant injuries to Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent, but their four best players — LeBron, Davis, Reaves, Russell — played more than 70 games together.
"You've got a lot of criticism because of the rotation," Hamm said after Game 5. "But rotation is only secondary. First and foremost is health. ”
This fully shows that Hamm is very fond of making excuses, and does not find reasons from himself at all.
On Feb. 3, the Lakers started with their best five players. In the next matches, they recorded a 23-10 record.
"I've been telling them that this is who we are," Hachimura said on Feb. 14. "We tried a lot of different things, some lineups and other things, but that's where we were in the playoffs, that's how we got to win, so it's simple. ”
However, they failed to get out of the play-offs.
On Monday, The Athletic reported that the Lakers' tweaks in the Feb. 28 game against the Los Angeles Clippers — LeBron's "sick mode" game — were initiated by players (LeBron made sure to praise Tyronn Lue).
Game 2 against the Nuggets — and events before and after — could be the death knell for Ham. Before the game, Ham admitted that he didn't know how to stop Nikola Jokic ("like shit, I don't know what to do").
He stood by while his teammates squandered a 20-point lead and barely ran offensive tactics. In the last minute, he didn't challenge the important whistle and then blamed the referee (LeBron and Russell did the same).
Afterward, Davis publicly questioned why the Lakers still had a "time when we didn't know what we were doing" phase. During practice two days later, Ham exacerbated the situation by defending his coaching staff and disagreeing with his star. (The two eliminated the contradiction.) ）
Ahead of Game 4, Ham said he "always thought of a team as a reflection of the coach, both mentally and emotionally," as the Lakers beat the Nuggets for the first time in 12 attempts.
With this Ham, the Lakers should have been fired a long time ago, so let's change to a real coach.