Darvin Ham’s job reportedly in ‘serious peril’ after playoff exit to Nuggets

The Lakers’ underwhelming season and first round exit of the playoffs has reportedly left Darvin Ham’s future in great uncertainty heading into the offseason.

After bowing out of the playoffs on Monday in five games against the Nuggets in a first round series, all attention for the Lakers turn to Darvin Ham and his future as head coach.

His job has been a topic of discussion for much of the year after a topsy-turvy season. Decisions will have to be made fast and reports are already coming as a joint article from Shams Charania, Sam Amick and Jovan Buha of The Athletic reported Ham’s job is in “serious peril” heading into the offseason.

The Lakers’ unflattering finish leaves Ham’s future as head coach in serious peril, multiple league and team sources tell The Athletic, with some stakeholders indicating it’s highly unlikely he’ll return. The plan is to reassess everything that went wrong in the coming days before making a final decision. In 2022, Ham signed a four-year deal in the range of $5 million per season, so the team would be assuming the remainder of his deal if he is fired.

Shortly after the article from The Athletic, Dave McMenamin of ESPN also posted an article that mirrored the same reporting.

But for a second straight season, the Denver Nuggets’ way worked better, this time in the first round of the 2024 playoffs, putting Ham’s job very much in jeopardy, league sources told ESPN. The Lakers plan to conduct a post mortem on the season in the coming days before making a decision on Ham’s future, a team source told ESPN.

Over his two years in charge, Ham has experienced plenty of success. In his first season as head coach, he led the Lakers to a Western Conference Finals appearance, winning a play-in game and defeating the Grizzlies and Warriors en route.

In his sophomore season, he led the Lakers to an In-Season Tournament championship early in the year. However, that proved to be the high point of the season. The Lakers struggled in the month that followed.

The struggles were bad enough that questions about his job security surfaced. During the season, the Lakers were adamant that he was not on the verge of being fired and that his job was not in danger.

But that midseason rut proved costly as it forced the Lakers into the play-in by season’s end once more. While they beat the Pelicans to earn the No. 7 seed again, it left them with a matchup with the Nuggets once more. Despite holding double-digit leads in each of the first three games, including a 20-point lead in Game 2, the Lakers lost each game.

They more than saved face in the final two games of the series, winning Game 4 and fighting valiantly in Game 5. However, it was too little, too late, as Denver ended its season in five games.

Still, the play of LeBron James and Anthony Davis this season — both played their most games in a season as a Laker — showed the Lakers that the championship window for this core may not be closed...and that firing Ham might be a necessary move to maximize it while it’s open.

From McMenamin:

But James’ continued ability to stave off Father Time and Anthony Davis coming off perhaps his most complete season as a Laker, team sources said, has left L.A. believing that the championship window for this core has not closed, and if a different voice is needed to lead the group, the franchise will make the financial commitment to do so.

While the Lakers have not made a decision yet about Ham’s future, it’s really hard to read these reports from separate, prominent beat writers and not feel like the writing is on the wall.

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