Darvin Ham: What can new head coach bring to the Lakers?
LOS ANGELES (BVM) – After a 33-49 season in 2021-22, the Los Angeles Lakers decided it was time to move on from Frank Vogel, a coach who had just helped the Lakers to a championship a couple of years prior. In June, the Lakers hired Darvin Ham, an eight-year NBA player and nine-year assistant coach in the league.
The Lakers job is Ham’s first as a head coach in the league, and for one of the NBA’s most successful franchises, hiring a somewhat unknown leader is not often the path they have taken recently. However, Ham’s past experience has him ready to get the Lakers back in contention in 2022-23.
Who is Darvin Ham?
Before his coaching career, Ham was a star himself on the hardwood. Born and raised in Saginaw, Michigan, Ham attended Saginaw High School and initially began his college basketball career at Otero Junior College in Colorado before landing at Texas Tech.
Ham wasn’t necessarily impressive in the stat sheet in college, but was solid throughout his Red Raiders career, averaging 8.1 points and 5.1 rebounds across three seasons. However, he did have a couple of memorable moments throughout his college career, one being when he shattered the backboard during Texas Tech’s NCAA Tournament win over North Carolina in 1996, a game in which the Red Raiders took home a victory to make their first Sweet 16 appearance. Fittingly, Ham also won the 1996 NCAA slam dunk contest.
Fun fact: New Lakers coach Darvin Ham once shattered a backboard pic.twitter.com/THrfsuzEft
— Overtime (@overtime) May 28, 2022
The 6-foot-7 small forward went undrafted in 1996, but signed with the Denver Nuggets where he played sparingly in his rookie year, eventually being traded to the Indiana Pacers that same season. Ham signed with the Washington Wizards where he again saw limited action primarily off the bench in 1997-98. The following season, the Texas Tech grad played overseas in Spain.
In 1999, Ham joined the Bucks where he had some of his best years, averaging 4.4 points, 3.7 rebounds and one assist per game over his three seasons in Milwaukee. After another solid season off the bench for the Atlanta Hawks in 2002-03, Ham finished his career as a reserve for the Detroit Pistons who he won a championship with in 2004.
Although he would have brief stints in training camps, the summer league, and the NBA D-League in the years to follow, Ham’s final regular season NBA game came in 2004-05.
Darvin Ham’s coaching experience
Ham’s career stats in the NBA certainly don’t jump off the page, but his experience and leadership made him a tremendous locker room presence, and they have carried over to his coaching career.
The NBA veteran got his start in coaching as an assistant in the D-League with the Albuquerque Thunderbirds in 2008, and became the team’s head coach as they rebranded to the New Mexico Thunderbirds in 2010.
Ham made the jump to the NBA as an assistant with the Lakers in 2011, serving under head coach Mike Brown. In 2013, Ham became a part of Mike Budenholzer’s staff after he was hired as the head coach of the Atlanta Hawks.
Ham coached alongside Budenholzer in Atlanta until the head coach was let go by the Hawks in 2018, seeing plenty of success including a 2014-15 season in which the Hawks won 60 games as the top team in the Eastern Conference.
As Budenholzer was hired by the Milwaukee Bucks in 2018, Ham followed, getting to coach a young, emerging team led by Giannis Antetokounmpo. Following 60 and 56-win seasons in 2018-19 and 2019-20, respectively, Ham was part of an NBA championship team as the Bucks defeated the Phoenix Suns in the 2021 NBA Finals.
Last season, the Bucks won 51 games before eventually falling to the Boston Celtics in the second round of the playoffs. Ham had an opportunity to serve as acting head coach during the middle of the season as Budenholzer missed four games while being in the league’s COVID-19 protocol.
What can Darvin Ham bring to the Lakers?
With the Lakers, Ham has finally earned his first head-coaching job, and his NBA career has come full circle after beginning his coaching career in the league as an assistant in L.A. The Lakers fired Vogel after their disappointing campaign in April, and after about a month-and-a-half of searching, the Lakers officially hired Ham in May.
The Lakers have hired Darvin Ham as coach, sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 28, 2022
“The fact that I got my start as a coach here, this place will always be special to me,” Ham said at his introductory Lakers press conference in June. “It always was special to me. I always paid attention to what was going on with the Lakers even in my other travels with Atlanta and Milwaukee. It’s like a homecoming for me, in all seriousness.”
While he may not have prior head-coaching experience, serving on a staff with an NBA-champion coach in Budenholzer for nearly a decade has been a benefit.
“I’m forever grateful for him and what he did for me and my career,” Ham said about Budenholzer at his introductory press conference. “I couldn’t be sitting here in this chair without him allowing me to learn, grow and excel on his watch. I love him to death, we went from colleagues to friends to brothers, while all the while having an opportunity to make history. The same thing I plan to come here and instill in this program and get us back to the top of the food chain.”
Budenholzer learned from one of the all-time greats in Gregg Popovich in San Antonio, and has produced an impressive coaching tree himself over the last several years. Former Hawks assistant Quin Snyder went on to have several strong years with the Utah Jazz, while another former assistant in Kenny Atkinson went on to earn a head-coaching job with the Brooklyn Nets.
Since he’s been in Milwaukee, Coach Bud lost former assistant Taylor Jenkins to the Grizzlies who has taken Memphis towards the top of the Western Conference led by superstar Ja Morant. Now, Ham becomes the latest Budenholzer disciple, and he will certainly inherit some stars.
Of course, LeBron James returns to the Lakers for his 20th NBA season. Last year, James averaged an impressive 30.3 points per contest, but played in just 56 games due to injuries. While some believe father time might finally be catching up with him, James remains one of the top players in the league. Ham will look to be smart with managing his playing time, just as Budenholzer and the Bucks have been with Antetokounmpo over the years, and even how the Spurs and Popovich were with the likes of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili as they played out their final years in the league.
Pat with the clamps, Bron with the hammer 🗜🔨 pic.twitter.com/4DXIkpfsTd
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) October 13, 2022
Ham will look to also do what he can to keep Anthony Davis healthy. The big man has put up strong numbers throughout his time on the court in L.A., but can’t seem to stay on the court since the Lakers’ championship season in 2019-20, playing in just 36 games in 2020-21 and 40 last year.
Although the Western Conference is strong, a healthy combo of James and Davis should seemingly be enough to have the Lakers in playoff contention. To get back in title contention, it will be about the other guys.
Russell Westbrook headlines the best of the rest, but rumors have swirled throughout the offseason that he could be moved after his fit with the team seemed questionable in 2021-22. One of Ham’s greatest tasks could very well be making Westbrook work in this offense and getting him back to All-Star form.
The rest of the Lakers’ bench is filled with newcomers including other veteran guards in Patrick Beverley, Kendrick Nunn and Dennis Schroeder – who was with the team in 2021. The Lakers also signed Lonnie Walker IV during the offseason, a promising young guard who averaged over 12 points per game last season with the Spurs.
Veteran forwards in Thomas Bryant, Troy Brown Jr. and Juan Toscano-Anderson also join the team this season to mix with rookies Cole Swider, Max Christie and Scotty Pippen Jr.
Clearly, the Lakers have a lot of new pieces, and will feature a new look this season. For Ham, it’s an opportunity to mold a roster and prove what he can do despite being relatively unknown, just as his mentor in Budenholzer did years ago.
“I’m extremely excited,” Ham said at Lakers media day in September. “Last year was what it was, there were a variety of circumstances that led to the team playing the way they did and the lack of success that the team had last year … This year we’ve turned the page. We’re excited about the group that Rob [Pelinka] and I have put together.”
Working in Ham’s favor is having two of the league’s bona fide stars alongside him. If he can develop some of the young talent and get this team to mesh better than Vogel did the past two seasons, the Lakers could be back in the thick of things in the Western Conference.
