Lakers fire Darvin Ham after 2 seasons as the team’s head coach

Lakers head coach Darvin Ham shows his frustration during the second half of Game 2 of their first-round playoff series against the Denver Nuggets last month in Denver. After just two seasons at the helm, the Lakers fired head coach Darvin Ham on Friday morning – a decision that seemed unlikely just a year ago but seemed inevitable after how the Lakers’ 2023-24 season transpired.

It began with a slow start following an opening-night loss to the Nuggets, with the Lakers falling to 3-5 after dropping three consecutive early-November games. The Lakers’ early-season struggles led to Ham benching Austin Reaves for Cam Reddish on Nov. 10 with the hopes the move would improve the defense and provide better balance.

In addition to benching Reaves, who became a full-time starter again in early January, Ham also moved D’Angelo Russell to a reserve role after Russell’s rough play in early-to-mid December – a stretch in which the Lakers dropped five of six games. The Lakers finished the regular season 47-35 for eighth place in the West before beating the New Orleans Pelicans in the play-in tournament to become the No. 7 seed, setting up a playoff rematch with the Nuggets, a series they eventually lost in five games.

“You have all these talented players all along your roster, but to have a set nine, 10 guys, and you lose one, that’s one thing. But to have two, three, four guys missing different points at times, it’s tough. And all the while, trying to manage a guy that’s in this 21st season, another guy in A.D., it’s in his 12th, all the previous injury history he’s been through. Health is the greatest of wealth. And that’s pretty much it. You got healthy players, you can figure the rest out.

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