The Lakers were not participants in the weekend's NBA Draft Lottery. Not directly, at least.  Indirectly, however? Yeah, they're involved. Because when the Atlanta Hawks won the thing (despite only having a 3% chance of doing so), earning the top pick, it added an unexpected wrinkle to this offseason. If the Hawks decide to put guards Trae Young and Dejounte Murray on the market, the Lakers are expected to be interested in both.  But does winning the top pick make Atlanta more or less likely to put folks on the market? Does it mean the price goes up or down?  And which of those ..read more

The Lakers don't seem to be in a massive hurry to get something done vis-a-vis the coaching search, since two big names are off the market (Mike Budenholzer, Charles Lee), one isn't likely to get there (Ty Lue) and the only other open job belongs to the Washington Wizards. Meanwhile, oft-named candidates are still occupied, whether that's David Adelman (Denver), Micah Nori (Minnesota), or Sean Sweeney (Dallas).  Or, of course, JJ Redick (ESPN).   Depending on whose reporting in which you want to focus on in any given day—and it should be said, the usual suspects are all doing good wo ..read more

Thursday was a busy one on the NBA coaching carousel, which is obviously a matter of import for the Lakers.  First, Charlotte hired Charles Lee, a top assistant on Boston's staff and long seen as a name to watch in coaching circles. He was on LA's list, but not seen as a priority candidate by most reports. Meanwhile, in Phoenix, Mike Budenholzer is set to become the Suns' next head coach, again, taking a name of interest off LA's list. And why is Budenholzer heading there? Because former Lakers head coach Frank Vogel was canned.  So in a thin coaching market, could Vogel be a real ca ..read more

How unpopular is Darvin Ham among Lakers fans?  Well, for starters, at least according to a poll on the show's YouTube page, fans would rather see Phil Jackson return—nearly 79 year old projector of intense "these teenagers need to get off my lawn" energy and once insulter of LeBron James Phil Jackson—than give the keys to Mike Budenholzer, who isn't any of those things and has won an NBA title and 50 games in a season multiple times.  Why?  Ham comes from the Budenholzer tree. It would mean firing the student to hire the teacher. And by about 2-1, Lakers fans favor Jackson in t ..read more

As the Lakers were losing (again) to the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, it felt like they were far enough away from the defending champs that the deficit couldn't be placed entirely at the feet of Darvin Ham. Somewhere near his feet? Sure. A good chunk of that blame? Ok. But to the point where you'd say the Lakers would win if not for coaching?  It was tough sell.  That sales job, however, is looking a little easier now that Denver is down two games to none against Minnesota, including a 26-point pasting on Monday night. Even factoring in an injury to Jamal Mu ..read more

The Lakers have to find a new head coach, meaning there are a lot of decisions in front of them, some small, some large. But even before it comes time to actually start the interviews and begin negotiations with a preferred candidate, the Lakers need to decide a couple things, themselves.  First, what do they really want in a coach? What qualities do they value? And then from there, what kind of basketball do they want to play? Different coaches have different strengths and styles. For the Lakers to know if they're getting the right guy, they need to  have an idea of what type of tea ..read more

Defenders of Darvin Ham—and while Lakers Nation isn't exactly full of them, there are some whether among fans or in the (generally national) media—have pointed out since the Lakers canned Ham (ha!) Friday afternoon that it's not fair to blame him for everything that went wrong this year.  Darvin wasn't "the" problem.  The "real" problem was something else.  The problem there, of course, is that the framing is too reductive. In any season like this one, responsibility for success and failure is spread around. So yeah, Darvin wasn't "the" problem, but he was "a" problem, and the e ..read more

The inevitable just became reality. On Friday, the Lakers announced that Darvin Ham has been relieved of his duties as head coach of the Lakers. It's no surprise that Ham is out because all signs pointed in this direction, but it's actually pretty shocking that Ham, after doing such a good job building buy-in as a rookie coach with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, D'Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura, saw it all go to pot during his second year. Increasingly, Ham found his decisions being questioned by players, to say nothing of fans and, reportedly, the front office, and kept refusin ..read more

WHAT'S TAKING SO LONG?  While not exactly the sentiment of every Lakers fan... it's the sentiment of many when it comes to the expected dismissal of Darvin Ham from his gig with the Lakers. After all, reports following LA's Game 5 loss to the Nuggets earlier in the week suggested Ham's job was all but gone. Subsequent reports say the Lakers are still moving down that path, potentially as early as the end of the week. Which, to be clear, is basically today. So if they know they want to do it, and are continuing to leak that they're going to do it... why haven't they done it?  Well, on ..read more

The immediate business ahead of the Lakers is deciding, or perhaps just finding the right time to announce, the future of Darvin Ham.  But while everyone waits on that—and the Lakers did in fact conduct exit interviews internally (and away from probing questions from media types)—one could certainly assume that major stakeholders were asked not just about Darvin, but more importantly what worked and what didn't this year, and what kind of coach they'd like to see next season.  That would include, at least in theory, LeBron James, whose own future in Los Angeles isn't exactly an open ..read more