Lakers giving more leeway to new coach Darvin Ham?

Darvin Ham may already be getting more leeway than his predecessor Frank Vogel had.

Veteran NBA writer Marc Stein said this week in a post to his Substack that the newly-hired Los Angeles Lakers head coach Ham has been promised the autonomy to choose his own coaching staff. Ham has also reportedly been gotten assurances that Lakers executive Kurt Rambis will not be a regular presence in his coaching meetings. Stein adds that these would mark significant concessions for a first-year head coach like Ham.

Interestingly enough, those were perks that Vogel, who was fired by the Lakers in April, did not enjoy. During Vogel’s time in charge, the Lakers organization installed the likes of Jason Kidd and then David Fizdale onto his coaching staff. The presence of Rambis at Vogel’s coach meetings also created somewhat of a controversy in the months before Vogel was let go.

The difference here though may ultimately be that Ham, a former Lakers assistant and NBA champion as an assistant for the Milwaukee Bucks, has the confidence of the Lakers’ top decision-makers. Even before he was hired, there were reports that Ham was the preferred candidate of both Rambis and another prominent Lakers figure.