Execs claim LeBron James wants Tyronn Lue to replace Darvin Ham as Lakers coach

Save for a championship in 2020 and an NBA Cup win earlier this season, the Lakers has had a tumultuous run since LeBron James joined the team in 2018. Since then, the franchise had had three coaches mentors steer the squad: Luke Walton, Frank Vogel, and Ham.

LeBron James may seek to reunite with his former Cavaliers head coach, two NBA executives told Heavy Sports. The Lakers previously had the chance to hire their former point guard as their next head coach in 2019, but muffed contract negotiations, and Lue eventually joined their cross-tunnel rival Clippers in 2020.

“There are a lot of factors there, Ty [Tyronn Lue] is under contract [for the 2024-25 season] but if the Clippers decide they need some changes, he could be one of the changes,” a league executive said in the Heavy Sports report. “LeBron [James] can be a free agent. If Ty is out there, it is pretty clear that’s who LeBron wants.”

Another executive said LeBron James has handpicked Tyronn Lue, out of his previous mentors, as a potential candidate for the head coaching job with the Lakers. However, the executive noted that the notion of James swaying influence over personnel changes has been blown out of proportion.

“If it was all up to LeBron, he’d have Ty Lue as his coach and he would do that with the Lakers,” an Eastern Conference executive said. “That’s his guy. Out of all the coaches LeBron has ever had, the one he singles out is Ty. Now he is in a position where he has free agency on his side and he can maybe force the team to do something to get his guy if he gets fired.”

“I think LeBron has a reputation for pulling strings and dictating moves, and that gets way overblown. Anyone who has worked with him will say, he is easy to work with. He has opinions and he will let you know and, really, you’d be crazy not to ask him his opinion. But he is not a puppet master like some people think,” the executive added. “But if Ty Lue is available, I’d be really shocked if he did not push the Lakers to get him.”

With the Lakers failing to make it past the Western Conference Finals in 2023 and the first round this season, rumored coaching candidates besides Lue include former Milwaukee Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer and former NBA veteran JJ Redick.