The Los Angeles Lakers have finally announced Darvin Ham as their new head coach after a couple of months of looking for a new helmsman. The Purple and Gold are coming from a disappointing season that saw Frank Vogel lose his job. They couldn’t make it to the play-in tournament, which prompted the front office to make some changes.
Now, the former Milwaukee Bucks assistant Ham is taking over the Lakers after competing with Kenny Atkinson and Terry Stotts for the job. Ham is a young former player that could have the same impact on players as Ime Udoka had in Boston, Jason Kidd in Dallas and even Monty Williams in Phoenix.
Upon his announcement as the team’s new head coach, a report indicates that the franchise had their sights set on a different person and they opened the door for him to take over if he wanted to.
According to Marc Stein, Michigan Wolverines’ head coach Juwan Howard was the Lakers’ preferred candidate to coach them, giving him the last word on that matter:
The Lakers, I’m told, made such strong overtures to Howard that the implication was clear: The job was his if he wanted it. As covered here on May 2, Howard made it clear in turn throughout the Lakers’ 47-day search that — despite his long associations with both James and Lakers vice president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka — he had no interest in leaving behind the college game at Michigan and the opportunity to coach sons Jace and Jett next season.
Howard was linked with the Lakers for a while now, but he always made it clear he was focused on Michigan and nothing else. His son is playing for the Wolverines and he wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to coach him.
The Lakers finally found the man for the job and things are looking promising for them. They still need to find a way to make Russell Westbrook work alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis, but Ham seems confident that he can get it done.
